Today I was that person who summarized a 30 minute meeting on why our product has so many issues with:
"It's a people problem!"
😁
#proud

I'm over the moon that my talk "designing software that respects every identity" has been accepted at @agiletdzone.bsky.social
This means that I'll get to share the most common hurdles gender diverse people face in software with the people who can fix them 🥰

agiletestingdays.com/2026/session...

I love that perspective, thank you!

Wie geil, herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Square social media graphic for MoTaCon featuring a dark blue background with stars and a light glow at the top. The gold MoTaCon logo is centered at the top. Below it, the word "TALK" appears in a white bubble, followed by the title "Make it joyful: How to build products that make people smile." In the center is a circular headshot of Clare Norman, a woman with pink hair and a smile. Her name and title, "Senior Quality Coach," are listed at the bottom.

🖖 Make it joyful: How to build products that make people smile

Join Clare Norman and us at #MoTaCon 2026 and leave with a practical playbook for identifying where joy belongs in your own product and how to make the case for it within your team.

Queermed wird 5! am 23.05.2026 in Köln Queermed wird 5! am 23.05.2026 in Köln ► Alle Infos & Tickets auf Rausgegangen!

Queermed wird 5! 🎉 Und das möchten wir feiern: Am 23.05. in der Alten Feuerwache in Köln. Kommt vorbei und feiert mit uns. 😍
rausgegangen.de/events/queer...

Discworld QOTD, from Monstrous Regiment

“Forget you were ever Polly. Think young male, that was the thing. Fart loudly and with self-satisfaction at a job well done, walk like a puppet that’d had a couple of random strings cut, never hug anyone, and, if you meet a friend, punch them.”

Two weeks ago I got surprised by rejection mails from a conference - surprised because I had forgotten that I submitted there.
Another conference will send out their mails today and while that would usually have me on the edge of my seat all day long I don't care much this time.
Speaker burnout?

“In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political,

I must listen to the birds.

And in order to hear the birds,

the warplanes must be silent”

- Marwan Makhoul

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

A large white plate with four purple balls on top of it. It's clearly visible that the balls have been formed as two halves.

Fun project of the day: Supporting my daughter in making her own bath bombs.
Those are larger than ping pong balls and a small test with leftover material indicates that there's going to be a proper party in the bathtub tomorrow 😁

Are We Building the Right Thing, or How GenAI Made Us Forget to Ask I was listening to the A/B Testing podcast the other day, episode 229, where Alan Page had my friend Chris Armstrong on as a guest. At one point they were talking about Verification and Validation. Two concepts that have been around forever. Two simple questions, really. "Are we building the thing right?" That's verification. "Are we building the right thing?" That's validation.

"Are we building the right thing?" is a question as old as engineering itself. GenAI made it easier than ever to skip. Time to start asking again.

"Could you turn me into a cat?" the man asked.

The witch gave him a long look. "Why?"

"So I could be your familiar," he said with a grin.

"What an interesting idea! Let me try."

*poof*

"Oops!" the witch said.

She picked up the frog. "Let's get you to a pond."

*Joker in the hospital meme*

"If a cardinal changes his first name because he's elected as Pope, nobody panics, because it's all 'part of the plan'. But when a trans person changes their first name, well then loses their minds!"

#Pole class today has been cancelled 😭

Cancel Reply Forbidden Jay Bluesky is made with Al, the engineers and even some non-engineers use Claude code Can you ask them to stop?

Asking the forbidden question

Assisted Migration, or Why Forcing AI Into Your Ecosystem Is a Terrible Idea I recently listened to a podcast about "assisted migration." Scientists are helping plants and trees migrate to new areas because climate change is happening too fast for natural evolution. A tree that thrives at a certain temperature profile can't just walk north when its habitat becomes inhospitable. And also the seeds don't spread that quickly. Think acorns. So researchers look up international catalogs, find similar species that already grow in warmer climates, and carefully introduce them to new regions.

I listened to a podcast about "assisted migration" for trees and plants. A fantastic topic for a systems thinker. I listened to an AI podcast just before that. And then a few uncomfortable synaptic connections clicked.

CN Sexual assault, rape

a close up of a cartoon pikachu with his mouth open . Alt: a close up of a cartoon pikachu with his mouth open .

/s

Sponsorship Welcome to the Open Security Conference (osco), the people-centred international gathering for everyone interested in cybersecurity. Join us 5-8 November 2026 in Rückersbach, Germany.

Know a company that genuinely supports community driven initiatives & takes DEI seriously?
We are looking for sponsors for the #osco26, an open space, practitioner led conference.
If your organization wants to support the community, you can find details here: buff.ly/alqfopU

Wow, das ist so toll geworden! Und DU HAST DAS GEMACHT! 🤩
Richtig stark

"There's this expression, 'cursed by the gods'. What does that curse entail?"

"Literally, 'may people behave like humans at you'," the god said.

"Ouch! And 'blessed by the gods'?"

"Same thing."

"How can it be the same?"

"The difference," said the god, "is which people's attention you catch."

MVP = Maximally vibecoded prototype

Hello Marburg, am Freitag 08. Mai gibt’s mein Programm QUEERE HOFFNUNG - GESCHLECHT, DISKRIMINIERUNG, SOLIDARITAT Im: @queereszentrummarburg in Kooperation mit @lsbtiq_netzwerk_hessen Es geht um geschlechtlichen Biologismus, Ausschlüsse, offene Feindlichkeit und dabei auch immer um „das große Ganze“. Queerfeindlichkeit beginnt nicht mit offener Gewalt, sondern überall dort von „in Ruhe“ und „Sachlichkeit“ über die Leben queerer Menschen „debattiert“ wird.

Der Vortrag umfasst eine Aufklärung über gängige diskriminierende Begriffe und zeigt wie sie im Alltag verankert sind. Die Referentin beschäftigt sich mit der Existenz von offen transfeindlichen Personen und Organisationen. Hierin wird auch dargestellt, dass Transfeindlichkeit ein verbindendes Element (Querfront) zwischen entgegengesetzten politischen Strömungen im Kapitalismus sein kann. Denn Transfeindlichkeit beginnt nicht erst mit offener (körperlicher) Gewalt. Für die Referentin ist das grundsätzliche Hinterfragen von Geschlechternormen und - Definitionen unerlässlich. Sie geht der Frage nach, was *wir alle* tun müssen, um bestehende diskriminierende geschlechtliche Vorstellungen zu erkennen und zu dekonstruieren. Felicia Ewert ist Autorin und Speakerin zu den Themen Queerfeindlichkeit, Transfeindlichkeit, (Trans-)Misogynie, geschlechtlichem Biologismus und Neurodivergenz.

Hello Marburg, am Freitag 08. Mai gibt’s mein Programm
QUEERE HOFFNUNG - GESCHLECHT, DISKRIMINIERUNG, SOLIDARITAT

holy shit he actually conceded

folks, they tell you they’re invincible

they tell you they’re inevitable

they tell you that you should give up and stop fighting

and absolutely none of that is true

Discworld QOTD, from Thud!

By the way, I want to make a strong emphasis here on 'parents'. Not 'fathers'. Parents. Because cis women love to opt out of responsibility for this when the pressure to perform gender properly is coming from all sides, because cis women as a whole are just as transphobic and queerphobic as cis men.

Why I Rant Without Providing Solutions "Why do you only point out problems? Where are your solutions?" It's a fair question. I ask it myself sometimes, scrolling through my own posts. Another rant about AI hype. Another frustrated observation about how we're losing craftsmanship. Another finger pointing at something that's broken. A bit more salt into some open wounds. And then... nothing. No neat five-step plan. No actionable takeaways.

"Where are your solutions?" Fair question. Honestly: I don't have any. What I have is tools for thinking. Systems thinking. Perspective shifts. I can't think for you. But I can show you ways to improve your thinking. I don't want you to share my thinking. That's my contribution. Small, but mine.

Ran into one of my old college buddies today

dude was one of the most cracked devs I knew. like reverse engineer a os from binary cracked

found out she transitioned.

I asked her why, and this hit me like a ton of bricks,

"kiran, a computer contains no techbros, but millions of trans sisters"