"Don't Take the Black Pill" by @andrewrk https://youtu.be/zLZwpH5lCD4

[cwebber@social.coop]

One of the things I found nice from @andrewrk's talk was, finally, someone else hates A/B testing and says it!

But this really congealed for me in a way upon reflection of the talk: the reason I don't like A/B testing is it's like focus groups but for software

[sanityinc@hachyderm.io]

@cwebber I always enjoy @andrewrk's talks: he is an engineer's engineer. Keep being awesome! (Both of you.)

[mhcat@climatejustice.social]

@cwebber @andrewrk it's amoral.

Excellent talk

[d_rift@beige.party]

@cwebber @andrewrk minus the things focus groups are supposed to involve: consent, and listening to people. so even worse.

[seth@pdx.social]

@cwebber @andrewrk Fact

[joeinwynnewood@mstdn.social]

@cwebber @andrewrk

Very much appreciate your sharing. I'm way past my programming days, not quite so far past IT management consulting work, both as an independent and employee, most of it was very applicable.
I wasn't nearly as good at misdirection & secrecy as a W2 as I might have been, it probably dropped me into an early rather than later RIF wave in my last W2 stint, side benefit I got to do one more IT strategy engagement on my own.
I'll be sharing with my local Indivisible group...

[r343l@freeradical.zone]

@cwebber @andrewrk I've been learning Ukrainian for fun (fairly not useful to me, picked it because I learned some czech as a kid and wanted to learn a language that used cyrillic script; took years of Spanish, Japanese, Latin) and an unexpected side effect was making me happy at how great the internet is! Wiktionary: free high quality etymology info (& a free offline use phone app)?! So many online free / cheap resources from native speakers!

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@cwebber @andrewrk Oh do I have some things to say about A/B testing...

[puppygirlhornypost2@transfem.social]

@dalias@hachyderm.io @andrewrk@mastodon.social @cwebber@social.coop "gaslighting at scale" is the shortest i can possibly do for a/b testing.

[lexyeen@plush.city]

@cwebber @andrewrk@mastodon.social oh my fuck that is exactly why youtube's seemingly enforced a/b (and sometimes even c) testing of thumbnails pisses me off

[smallcircles@social.coop]

@cwebber @andrewrk

Great talk. "We must believe that Humanity is generally good".

This is the premise of Social experience design (SX), in a quite holistic approach.

Scrolling my timeline this morning, like most mornings, I found the black pill, the doom and gloom we project to each other to tell about the state of apocalypse.

Our real bad actors are a tiny minority, but they win and keep winning, because we let them. The majority of us are common everyday people, sharing very similar basic needs. Have aspirations to lead a meaningful life. We want to be involved with positive, uplifting things, follow passions, unleash our creativity.

Software should serve that. Coding is social. We have to learn how to cocreate and create works that leave positive societal imprint. Joyful creation!

Fediverse is full of activists. Awareness-raising. But that's just the tip of the spear. We need pathways to solutions. The shaft gives impetus. We need only follow dreams.

https://coding.social/blog/fediverse-of-dreams

[dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org]

@cwebber @andrewrk

"To me this is completely missing the point, which is to pool effort in order to ensure that in general users of software remain in control of that software. To this end it doesn't really matter if your code gets picked up by AI companies. It primarily matters whether high quality free software is available to users providing competition that limits the degree to which proprietary software can get away with being coercive....

[dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org]

@cwebber @andrewrk
... If you refrain from participating in the software of the commons, the only thing that you're doing is surrendering more of our collective agency to abusive centralized powers." --Andrew Kelley

Fuck yes, can I get this on a billboard? On a flag? On a t-shirt... paint it on a fucking mural please...

[sabilewsounds@mastodon.social]

@dlakelan @cwebber @andrewrk

Wish I had spoons and luxury to dig into what's being said here but I have a feeling it's worth it

[geepawhill@mastodon.social]

@cwebber @andrewrk Remarkable. TY, Christine, and TYSM, Andrew.