Jessica Kerr
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jessitron.bsky.social
Jessica Kerr
@jessitron.bsky.social
Symmathecist, in the medium of code.
Software, systems thinking, observability, process philosophy, enactivism. She/her
"discovering that the earth orbits around the sun produced an orientation 'failure'" -- people were oriented around the earth as the center. Uproar.

Noticing that gender is not binary, this is an orientation failure. People are very oriented around M/F. The religions react with violence.
October 28, 2025 at 1:04 PM
At this Agentic AI discussion, we're talking about building software and UIs on top of LLMs.

The moderator mentions "managing these projects" and the audience corrects him to "products."

Product thinking is essential for building on top of AI. There is no "correct" only "useful"
October 23, 2025 at 4:11 PM
We are on the raggedy edge.
We have to build good telemetry.
We have to build good evals.

... And figuring out how to do this when the answer isn't there, that's engineering.

- Tim Williamson from Bayer, on building with AI.
Arch Data event, Agentic AI in St Louis
October 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
More information, more summaries, more information, more summaries, and more entropy at every crank of the handle. It’s a singularity, yes, but a singularity of busywork.

- Duncan Brown

mechanicalsurvival.com/blog/team-dy...
Team dynamics after AI
Small giants and real giants
mechanicalsurvival.com
October 13, 2025 at 11:39 PM
The work is not about simplifying the system, but about designing the connective tissue that enables complex organizations to act with coherence. - John Cutler (cuttlefish. What is his bluesky?)
October 8, 2025 at 4:26 PM
"Going for lots of data isn’t a firehose, it’s a sewer pipe"
(overheard)
September 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM
“one of the most devious climate concepts of all times: the personal carbon footprint.” - Benjamin Franta

It’s a distraction invented by BP to deflect blame onto individuals, when the “necessary, and largely sufficient” solution is: stop burning fossil fuels.
September 13, 2025 at 4:47 PM
3 Things the Winners Do with new tech:
1. Deeply understand it
2. Learn how to use its strengths, get around weaknesses
3. Adapt your domain to the tech.
@adamhjk.me #o11yDay @honeycomb.io

We have to change what we do to get the most out of the tech.
September 11, 2025 at 9:29 PM
"getting COVID won't help you thrive in an AI-native world" @adamhjk.me #o11yDay #honeycomb

He's doing a great talk, but he has COVID so we have to watch it on video. 😭
September 11, 2025 at 9:25 PM
"We have to do the things [like documentation] that make human engineers better
before we can delegate to machines"
- Dave Williams
#o11yDaySF @honeycomb.io
September 11, 2025 at 7:27 PM
I see from @kentbeck.com ‘s newsletter that @gitpod.io has rebranded as Ona, and is now an AI-assisted code thing in the cloud

YES THANK YOU! This is what I want!

Now I can work on my toy project from my ipad, in the browser… if only I could close the AI chat window
September 5, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Higher privilege leaves you ignorant.
When people defer to you, then you're insulated from reality, since they present what you want to see, confirm your beliefs etc since that smooths their lives.
They can take your perspective, and you have no clue theirs exists or how to see from it
September 2, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Jessica Kerr
@jessitron.bsky.social discusses how AI and observability are shaping the future of software. We’re gathering the community to explore what that means.

Join us at o11yDaySFO on Sept 11!

👉 Register now: buff.ly/Ainycoh

#honeycomb #observability #o11yDaySFO
September 2, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Everything's bullshit at scale
- @avdi.codes
September 1, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Jessica Kerr
The first article in the series is about all of the great things that can be learned from my favorite @jessitron.bsky.social presentation and how developers work best in a Product Dev team:

programmersstone.blog/posts/how-wi...
How will we know it works?
This article is part of the series JEG2's Questions. As programmers, our primary function is to achieve Product's roadmap. We will into existence the features Product believes will move the product fo...
programmersstone.blog
August 11, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Jessica Kerr
agreed on incentives problem, especially when everything seems to be betting on "rub some AI on it" as an "efficiency" solution

the latest o11ycast with @.grimalkina.bsky.social is _way into_ this stuff and I loved every minute of reading its fantastic transcript

www.heavybit.com/library/podc...
O11ycast | Ep. #85, AI/LLM in Software Teams: What’s Working and What’s Next with Dr. Cat Hicks | Heavybit
In episode 85 of o11ycast, Dr. Cat Hicks unpacks AI’s impact on software teams from a psychological and social-science perspective.
www.heavybit.com
August 17, 2025 at 5:24 AM
In my latest toy project, I sadly hit a limitation and realized I shouldn't have used htmx, this is a state-based web app.

'convert from htmx to React' is a one-line change now
August 15, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Putting all your controllers in one directory and your views in another
Is like putting the cortisone and hemorrhoid cream in the drawer with toothpaste because they're all tubes.
August 7, 2025 at 12:10 PM
AI as part of the writing process: big win
AI as the entire writing process: big fail
August 4, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Tests tell us our software can work.
Observability tells us our software IS working.
August 3, 2025 at 12:11 AM
If I stop learning new things, then my existing knowledge isn't worth much - there's value in the combination.
August 2, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Today I am doing some serious work in a large codebase written with heavy LLM assistance

and it kind of makes me cry.

The design has so much "but WHY???"
July 28, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Me, at the grocery store with the teenager: I want some Spicy V8
Teenager: That sounds like the grossest drink possible! The only thing grosser is if you mixed it with tonic.
Me: Good idea!

(confirmed, it is a good idea)
July 16, 2025 at 8:46 PM
If I haven't undone anything today,
have I really done anything?

(this brought to you by coding and by making a new kind of friendship bracelet)
July 6, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Before AI agents, a “big mistake” was "now I've wasted a few days/weeks." Instead, now it's "well, there goes my evening..." That's not bad at all.
@krimple.bsky.social
July 1, 2025 at 3:00 PM