"People are all doing a thing, and I think there are mistakes they could make with it" to me is a challenge to think about how to better scaffold those people rather than a reason to have contempt for people.
jacobian
@jacobian.org
django, security, eng management, basketball shitposting. web: jacobian.org signal: jacobian.01
Some thoughts on eating meat, which isn’t really about eating meat. jacobian.org/2026/jun/16/...
This isn't a post about eating meat - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Notes about eating animals, morality, harm reduction — but this isn’t about any of that, not really.
jacobian.org
It’s a long game for his biggest video yet: ”Mr Beast gives ex-employee all his money (because a judge ordered him to)”
I just think Geno would look a lot prettier if he smiled more
OK, not that anyone asked, but let me just explain why my takes re: Tesla stans are what they are and why they're so pointed. I ended up in conversation with someone who is a pretty big deal in Tesla circles. Had influence with Elon etc. He didn't know the words "Alpitronic Hypercharger" 🧵
Hey if you’re looking to try/retry/find a home on the ActivityPub/mastodon shaped part of the fediverse, I will personally help you get set up, move followers, block assholes, etc I have no interest in debating the merit of bsky-v-mastodon, purely offering help. Reskeets welcome ✨
People who are having success managing (low-stakes, non-production) servers with LLMs — how are you going about it? Are you just pointing Claude (or whatever) at an SSH connection, or are you having the LLM write config management code and then applying that? Or something else?
The “default” working model for open source projects is working in public: you don’t need permission to contribute, you can just show up. When this doesn’t work, people often retreat into working in private. This is a mistake! There is a middle ground: jacobian.org/2025/oct/18/...
Working in Between Public and Private - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
If working in public isn’t working, consider adopting a middle-ground option instead of retreating into fully-private.
jacobian.org
Hey #Django fam do I Know anybody at Zest Health? They've got some jobs I'm interested in and are apparently a django shop. Boosts appreciated!
Reading @jacobian.org 's exit from tech rings a bell. We love computers but we hate the tech industry. We love space but we dread the space industry. We love music but we loathe the record industry. We can have nice things, just not under capitalism. (OTOH, excited for him ❤️)
Changing Directions - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
<p>I have two important announcements:</p> <ol> <li> <p>I’m leaving the tech industry. Hopefully “for good”; if not, at least “for now”.</p> </li> <li> <p>As such, the co...
jacobian.org
In case anyone’s wondering, `jacobian . bsky . social` isn’t me. Super flattered that I now rank high enough to score an impersonator tho!
A lot of tech people, particularly more junior folks, are looking for jobs right now. A short but important note for them: newcomers should generally ignore career advice from people who've been in the field longer than 10 or 15 years. jacobian.org/2025/mar/13/...
Beware tech career advice from old heads - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
If you’re new to tech – say, less than 5 years in the field – you should take career advice from people who’ve been in the industry more than 10-15 years with enormous skepticism.
jacobian.org
A reminder: doing illegal things is illegal. If somebody gives you an order to do something illegal, it is your obligation to say no. "Just following orders" has never been a defense, legally or ethically.
Part six of my risk series is up — a final (long) sidebar to the introduction, coming back around the the concept of quantitative risk analysis and giving a more complete explanation of what I see as the pros and cons of that practice: jacobian.org/2025/jan/28/...
Sidebar #4: Quantitative Risk Revisited - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
In part 1 of this series, I briefly covered quantitive risk measuring – assigning a numeric value to risk, like “$3,500”, rather than a qualitative label like “medium” – only to quickly recommend agai...
jacobian.org
> Lots of situations in life are like this, where there’s a loud way to accomplish very little and a quiet way to do some good. And far too often, we reward people for doing the loud ineffective thing. alexgaynor.net/2025/jan/27/...
Stop Demanding Performance · Alex Gaynor
alexgaynor.net
I'd like to write a version of jacobian.org/2020/may/8/e..., but tailored to management roles. If you have a manager resume that lists specific accomplishments, and you'd be OK with me anonymized bits in a post like that, please email me your resume? jacob at jacobian dot org.
What accomplishments sound like on software engineering resumes - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Effective resumes need to contain two things: responsibilities and accomplishments. The first tells the read what your job was; the second, what your results were. Unfortunately, most people fail at t...
jacobian.org
💪❤️🇺🇸 hello former 18f and usds colleagues. reach out and say hi www.propublica.org/tips/federal...
Do You Work For the Federal Government? ProPublica Wants To Hear From You.
We’re doubling down on our coverage of government agencies and federal policy. With your help, we can dig deeper.
propublica.org
400 individual members of the Django Software Foundation – pretty cool milestone! https://thib.me/400-django-individual-members Now going for 500! 🌈 That’d be a great milestone to reach for the 20-year birthday of #Django in July 2025. Submit a nomination, or 2, or 3 to help make it happen?
400 individual members of the Django Software Foundation
As of a few weeks ago, the Django Software Foundation reached 400 individual members.
thib.me
Last night someone lit a Tesla on fire at the dealership here in Salem. Golly gee.
Part whatever in my risk series: When you look at a likelihood/impact risk matrix, you might notice that “medium” appears twice – once as high-likelihood/low-impact, and once as low-likelihood/high-impact. These two “mediums” aren’t at all the same! jacobian.org/2025/jan/17/...
Sidebar #3: Two Flavors of Medium Risk - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
When you look at a likelihood/impact risk matrix, you might notice that “medium” appears twice – once as high-likelihood/low-impact, and once as low-likelihood/high-impact. These two “mediums” aren’t ...
jacobian.org
Most serious accidents aren't singular events, but instead are the result of a series of small, seemingly-inconsequential missteps. We call this the Swiss Cheese Model, and it's one of the most important concepts in risk management: jacobian.org/2025/jan/16/...
Sidebar #2: The Swiss Cheese Model - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
In the real world, accidents happen when a series of small missteps align to create severe consequences. This is something we call the “Swiss Cheese Model”: imagining a systems failure as a set of “ho...
jacobian.org
Continuing my risk series with a short sidebar: we usually define Risk as the product of Likelihood and Impact, but some disciplines include a third factor, Exposure. What's up with that? jacobian.org/2025/jan/15/...
Sidebar #1: "Exposure" - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Risk is usually defined as the product of two factors: Likelihood and Impact. However, some disciplines include a third factor: Exposure. What’s that about, and when is it useful?
jacobian.org
I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012. Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place. A thread.
shotenfreude (n): the pleasure at watching the other team shoot an airball
My favorite new years tradition is reading about all the dumb things people did to their wieners last year defector.com/what-horribl...
What Horrible Things Did We Do To Our Penises Last Year? | Defector
Happy new year to one and all. Make a resolution never to do any of these things. All descriptions are taken verbatim from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s database of emergency room visi...
defector.com
I was on the board of a nonprofit that received funding from MacKenzie Scott. Her no strings attached gift was game changing. More philanthropists need to adopt this model instead of capitalist brained ideas of efficiency that are ultimately counterproductive.
Evan Sutton@evansutton.bsky.social · 2y agoAh yes, I see it's the time of year when the Philanthropy Industrial Complex (Big P for short) seeds negative stories about Mackenzie Scott because everything about the way she gives money undercuts their entire model... fortune.com/article/mack...
No DSF Office Hours this week — we’re all off celebrating various holiday things. See y’all next week!
No DSF Office Hours this week — we’re all off celebrating various holiday things. See y’all next week!
I heard there was a secret ooze that turned four reptiles into dudes, but you don’t really care for turtles do ya
Irrationally Calm@direbeard.bsky.social · 2y agoIt’s a cold and it’s a broken “cowabunga”