Author: Heidi Waterhouse
-

How guardrails enable you to work at AI speed
On December 10, I’m joining a bunch of cool people on a LeadDev panel to talk about guardrails and AI use. Register to join us! As we were doing the pre-panel discussion, I started thinking about the metaphor we were using. Guardrails are not uniquely American, but they are very American. We see them so…
-

Political: Whistle Work
What to do If you have a 3D printer, choose a design and print whistles. If you’re going to distribute yourself, add lanyards and flyers explaining them. If you hear a whistle and you are in the “slightly safer” demographic (middle-aged white lady, in my case), head for the sound and be ready to record…
-

Upcoming appearances
Upcoming appearances at ETLS, LeadDev panel, and Monktoberfest, with some book signings!
-

Communications is so big
Communications jobs are siloed in organization charts, but most of them share basic skills, and the specialization lies in the various audiences and tools. Communications is a continuum from UX to support.
-

No useless knowledge
It started two years ago, on a street in Dublin. They have a cool program where notable historical figures get a little bio on walls. The key part was this: She invented a unique uncrushable linen fabric by backing handkerchief linen with taffeta. Jacqueline Kennedy wore a pleated skirt in this fabric for her portrait…
-

Book Review: Hivestruck, by Vincent Toro
A review of Vincent Toro’s book Hivestuck. “An app that rots or riots / on command. An app that / functions without a thumb / to guide it. An app to eliminate undesireable / scents. An app that shakes / the sand from your bathing suit / while checking your father’s / cholesterol. An app…
-

Git along now
Look around you. Do you feel like maybe it would be nice to be able to have relational databases in your nice safe DVCS? What about streaming releases? What about coders who might be scared about screwing up? Do you actually roll all your code libraries up into the version control, or do you reference…
-

Talk: Taylorism Has Entered the ChatGPT
I want you to remember that technology is not the enemy. It’s just a lever. Where we’re standing and how we’re trying to move the world is what matters.
-

Generationship: Wayfinder
Rachel Chalmers and I talked about how to think of Progressive Delivery in the context of CI/CD and observability, and then we got into the nitty-gritty of what I think about AI and how it intersects with user choice.
-

HackNY: Well, Hell
Your career is long, and it has a lot of fluctuations, but you’ll never regret being curious about your industry, your role, and how people interact with computers.



