Kristen M Thayer

This is now my most popular post... fourteen-year-old me would feel so proud

I had an English teacher who insisted that there should be a comma after every use of the word "and," no exceptions (super bad explanation of the Oxford comma)

I proceeded to write an essay full of phrases like "my friend and, I had to go to the store," to prove how wrong she was.

I was fourteen.

Hugs to everyone working too hard, on too much, with too little kindness and understanding around you. We all deserve better.

I have been describing my current company as a place where we work reasonable hours, the product is profitable, and people are kind to work with, and people keep responding variations of awe and disbelief.

Which says a lot about where the tech industry is right now, I guess :-(

My kids did this during the pandemic! For a while!!!

The post brought to you by my late-night search for "bunk bed curtains" hoping that this is a real thing that exists, that will resolve the question of how much light should be in the room

The pottery barn fantasy of what your kids' room will look like, compared to the fever-dream reality of what you *actually* negotiate with your kids to make them happy inhabitants of their room...

This is my constant refrain as an eng manager!!

I'm not sure which of these I would pick tbh

What if the real vulnerability all along was NPM? 😜

Love this thread. I spend a lot of time thinking about all the tiny unseen things in systems that we take for granted, and that make them better. When I am sitting in a manager role, I try to notice and reward them; when I'm in a professor role, I try to help students think more deeply about them.

This is the way!!

These are so cool!

Observation while working from coffee shops this week: Ballard seems to be very invested in making it difficult to access bathrooms.

Right?!?!

I just saw "AI-infused" as a descriptor and was like... sir, AI is not essential oils, this is a very goofy marketing term, 2/10

My spouse thinks we could have pulled off "Cam's Camshafts"

In our quest to be The World's Nerdiest Family (TM), we just sang "Cookie Cat" at our neighborhood's Block Party karaoke (at the request of my older kid).

I'm happy to report that the 3 people who recognized it were delighted.

Finally a challenge I KNOW I can succeed at!!!

Clever

See also "passion"

I could live with never seeing words like "unrelenting," "daring," "fearless" in job descriptions ever again.

Just let work be work, and let people go home and unplug!

AI shifting the future of work 🙃

Please note: *noticing* this isn't the same as *endorsing* it, nor does it mean it will age well (hi trendy fashion decisions from 10+ years ago!)

But in terms of power, investment, and how the needle is moving, this is how I feel atm.

two women standing next to each other with one saying " but what you don t know is that that sweater is not just blue Alt: The Devil Wears Prada clip where Miranda Priestly explains how the fashion industry starts with a cerulean trend that eventually trickles down to Andy's pedestrian blue sweater. This is the gif for the line "but what you don t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean"

Watching the tech industry's AI push (and surrounding debates) feels a lot like watching the cerulean sweater moment in The Devil Wears Prada:

A small group of people at the top decide this *is* happening, the question is how it will trickle down to the "regular sweater" version for others.

slurpee machine with one crashed screen

I'm drinking the Bios Crash slurpee I hope it crashes my bios I hope I blue screen

It’s true. Sorry folks. There’s nothing that will tell you if an app is vibe coded except a 20+ year career in web services and a childhood of too much time on the computer. Good luck out there.

Some of those people were the ones who were the most welcoming to me when I switched careers into tech... they were like "isn't that how we all got here, really?"

(Also, this thread is great!)

Troubleshooting walkthrough: Cascade Into Darkness

This is a real issue I solved in Windows, the hurdles I faced, and what I'd do differently.

🐥🐥YOU CAN MUTE JUST THIS CONVERSATION THREAD🐥🐥

It starts with the user editing "HKLM\HARDWARE" and misunderstanding an instruction and breaking Windows.

What if turtle, but fast?