Ana Hevesi
@anthrocypher.bsky.social
Devtools as culture accelerators. Principal, Uploop.dev. Rogue researcher.
Ex Stack Overflow, early Node.js.
Invested in the deliberate practice of a brighter future.
Also @anthrocypher@hachyderm.io
Ex Stack Overflow, early Node.js.
Invested in the deliberate practice of a brighter future.
Also @anthrocypher@hachyderm.io
Pinned
Ana Hevesi
@anthrocypher.bsky.social
· Nov 30
OSF
osf.io
So @grimalkina.bsky.social and I teamed up to put our Cumulative Culture Theory of Developer Problem-Solving out into the world (preprint below).
But you may be wondering what cumulative culture is.
In short, it describes the social way that humans learn
osf.io/preprints/ps...
But you may be wondering what cumulative culture is.
In short, it describes the social way that humans learn
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Ana Hevesi
Some speaker joy as we look back at 2025 and plan for public speaking in 2026!
My inbox is now open for '26 events that need empathy + evidence + psychology for technologists 👀
My inbox is now open for '26 events that need empathy + evidence + psychology for technologists 👀
November 25, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Some speaker joy as we look back at 2025 and plan for public speaking in 2026!
My inbox is now open for '26 events that need empathy + evidence + psychology for technologists 👀
My inbox is now open for '26 events that need empathy + evidence + psychology for technologists 👀
I’ve had seniors in my life ask me to explain real quick why voting with our feet doesn’t work the same with FB or Amazon
And since none of them have been able to bankroll me spending ~5 years dissecting networked capitalism
I have to share what I can in tiny pockets and send them on their way 😔
And since none of them have been able to bankroll me spending ~5 years dissecting networked capitalism
I have to share what I can in tiny pockets and send them on their way 😔
anyway. we are living through a broad failure of network literacy. we need Sesame Street for the social internet and also still for reading and counting
November 15, 2025 at 3:47 PM
I’ve had seniors in my life ask me to explain real quick why voting with our feet doesn’t work the same with FB or Amazon
And since none of them have been able to bankroll me spending ~5 years dissecting networked capitalism
I have to share what I can in tiny pockets and send them on their way 😔
And since none of them have been able to bankroll me spending ~5 years dissecting networked capitalism
I have to share what I can in tiny pockets and send them on their way 😔
Reposted by Ana Hevesi
When I encounter myself as a different colored cursor because I have the Google Doc open in two tabs
December 21, 2023 at 10:09 PM
When I encounter myself as a different colored cursor because I have the Google Doc open in two tabs
It’s super funny how in the Northern Hemisphere we probably have six good, functional hours a day right now and we’re expected to just carry on like normal.
Absolutely absurd.
Absolutely absurd.
November 14, 2025 at 1:31 PM
It’s super funny how in the Northern Hemisphere we probably have six good, functional hours a day right now and we’re expected to just carry on like normal.
Absolutely absurd.
Absolutely absurd.
Software development revealing how we think about people’s minds is the entire reason I’ve ever given a damn about it.
People have made me feel like I’m delusional for this, but I think they’re the ones missing the plot.
People have made me feel like I’m delusional for this, but I think they’re the ones missing the plot.
As a psychologist, it's a really, really, really interesting and maddening set of problems here. Software development really exposes for me how we think about people's minds, even though it's an industry that likes to pretend it isn't thinking about people's minds at all.
But it really is.
But it really is.
November 9, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Software development revealing how we think about people’s minds is the entire reason I’ve ever given a damn about it.
People have made me feel like I’m delusional for this, but I think they’re the ones missing the plot.
People have made me feel like I’m delusional for this, but I think they’re the ones missing the plot.
Refusing to turn on each other is a huge part of how we get out of this
A retail working was pretty fucking rude to me yesterday
Wanna know what I said to clap back?
not a fucking thing
I was at liberty to enjoy a Saturday as I pleased, she was trapped in a low-agency situation with terrible pay
You do not need to mistreat people going through a hard time
Wanna know what I said to clap back?
not a fucking thing
I was at liberty to enjoy a Saturday as I pleased, she was trapped in a low-agency situation with terrible pay
You do not need to mistreat people going through a hard time
November 9, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Refusing to turn on each other is a huge part of how we get out of this
And you know what?
I find folks say they’re discarding because it’s squishy, but it’s actually because it’s scary.
I find folks say they’re discarding because it’s squishy, but it’s actually because it’s scary.
I continue to wrestle with assumptions & stereotypes & field-specific attribution errors people make about psych, but living in such an interdisciplinary & applied field, that tackles topics discarded by other fields as too scary & squishy, does teach you a lot about paradoxes in people's beliefs
November 4, 2025 at 6:34 PM
And you know what?
I find folks say they’re discarding because it’s squishy, but it’s actually because it’s scary.
I find folks say they’re discarding because it’s squishy, but it’s actually because it’s scary.
Reposted by Ana Hevesi
Thinking is invisible labor. Collaboration is invisible labor
October 29, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Thinking is invisible labor. Collaboration is invisible labor
This is one of my favorite things to wonder.
It’s as if software is also a place, and our experience of that place is collaboratively negotiated, and our behaviors are in part determined by its design. 😜
It’s as if software is also a place, and our experience of that place is collaboratively negotiated, and our behaviors are in part determined by its design. 😜
I wonder what the global cognitive effect is from using enterprise software built by software teams 🫣 like what does slack do to your cognitive and socioemotional health
October 29, 2025 at 8:28 PM
This is one of my favorite things to wonder.
It’s as if software is also a place, and our experience of that place is collaboratively negotiated, and our behaviors are in part determined by its design. 😜
It’s as if software is also a place, and our experience of that place is collaboratively negotiated, and our behaviors are in part determined by its design. 😜
“use cases haven't actually been defined prior to selling it”
Through a more cynical lens the chat about context engineering is a way to shift responsibility onto users instead of admitting the utility of these tools is much narrower than what's been sold, and the use cases haven't actually been defined prior to selling it.
I suspect the usefulness is primarily going to be on either very small projects or very tightly scoped slices of a project.
October 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
“use cases haven't actually been defined prior to selling it”
Metrics are always the result of important, harder to measure things about people’s experience that are driving behavior.
The numbers can be useful, but they’re never the whole story.
The map is not the terrain.
The numbers can be useful, but they’re never the whole story.
The map is not the terrain.
October 16, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Metrics are always the result of important, harder to measure things about people’s experience that are driving behavior.
The numbers can be useful, but they’re never the whole story.
The map is not the terrain.
The numbers can be useful, but they’re never the whole story.
The map is not the terrain.
Every codebase is an emergent communal reality and a reflection of our relationships, codified in behavior you can run an infinite number of times.
Wondering if we might consider wising up to this?
Wondering if we might consider wising up to this?
October 14, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Every codebase is an emergent communal reality and a reflection of our relationships, codified in behavior you can run an infinite number of times.
Wondering if we might consider wising up to this?
Wondering if we might consider wising up to this?
Reposted by Ana Hevesi
I think the single most important skill you can have online right now is being able to ask the question “is this person a journalist or a content creator” and then knowing what to do with that difference
October 12, 2025 at 6:10 PM
I think the single most important skill you can have online right now is being able to ask the question “is this person a journalist or a content creator” and then knowing what to do with that difference
This is one of the most important questions of our time, and tangling with it requires an almost scary amount of imagination and hope.
I’ve been working to nurture, clarify, and sustain this frame for fifteen years. I know how much it asks people to let go of.
I’ve been working to nurture, clarify, and sustain this frame for fifteen years. I know how much it asks people to let go of.
Conversations about AI all last week and today on here have me thinking:
How would we see the possibilities of software work for people if we had goals of human expression rather than production?
How would we see the possibilities of software work for people if we had goals of human expression rather than production?
October 12, 2025 at 3:27 PM
This is one of the most important questions of our time, and tangling with it requires an almost scary amount of imagination and hope.
I’ve been working to nurture, clarify, and sustain this frame for fifteen years. I know how much it asks people to let go of.
I’ve been working to nurture, clarify, and sustain this frame for fifteen years. I know how much it asks people to let go of.
“Software as a medium of becoming” is a really beautiful phrase. It describes the work I aspire to.
If software aimed for human expression instead of production, it would optimize for agency, not output—tools that help people say something true, not just do something fast.
Lineage over metrics. Growth over throughput. Software as a medium of becoming, not extraction.
Lineage over metrics. Growth over throughput. Software as a medium of becoming, not extraction.
October 12, 2025 at 2:54 PM
“Software as a medium of becoming” is a really beautiful phrase. It describes the work I aspire to.
I’ve done research interviews with eng & product leaders whose teams work with large quantities of agent-generated code.
Can confirm that tooling, practices, or some combination thereof are deeply necessary in a new world where LOC are shockingly cheap to produce.
Can confirm that tooling, practices, or some combination thereof are deeply necessary in a new world where LOC are shockingly cheap to produce.
I'm beginning to suspect that a key skill in working effectively with coding agents is developing an intuition for when you don't need to closely review every line of code they produce. This feels deeply uncomfortable!
October 11, 2025 at 7:24 PM
I’ve done research interviews with eng & product leaders whose teams work with large quantities of agent-generated code.
Can confirm that tooling, practices, or some combination thereof are deeply necessary in a new world where LOC are shockingly cheap to produce.
Can confirm that tooling, practices, or some combination thereof are deeply necessary in a new world where LOC are shockingly cheap to produce.
Halsey’s collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is the best Halloween album ever made
Do not @ me
Do not @ me
October 10, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Halsey’s collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is the best Halloween album ever made
Do not @ me
Do not @ me
Next time someone asks me if I’m technical I should just say:
“I don’t know. Are you?”
“I don’t know. Are you?”
September 28, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Next time someone asks me if I’m technical I should just say:
“I don’t know. Are you?”
“I don’t know. Are you?”
Reposted by Ana Hevesi
keeping it in the group chat
What's your secret to being online all the time without contracting computer madness? For me it's being pure of heart
September 25, 2025 at 9:37 PM
keeping it in the group chat
I’ve fallen in love with Becky Chambers’ work this year and have very nearly chewed through every book there is.
If I’m a fan of Chambers, what do I read next? I am about to enter withdrawal, please send help.
If I’m a fan of Chambers, what do I read next? I am about to enter withdrawal, please send help.
September 25, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I’ve fallen in love with Becky Chambers’ work this year and have very nearly chewed through every book there is.
If I’m a fan of Chambers, what do I read next? I am about to enter withdrawal, please send help.
If I’m a fan of Chambers, what do I read next? I am about to enter withdrawal, please send help.
It’s not that Stack Overflow originated the idea that some of us have special programmer brains and others don’t
it's just that we gamified the performance of it.
it's just that we gamified the performance of it.
September 22, 2025 at 6:38 PM
It’s not that Stack Overflow originated the idea that some of us have special programmer brains and others don’t
it's just that we gamified the performance of it.
it's just that we gamified the performance of it.
Nothing like thumbing through fifteen years of hard-won lessons in a field no one’s wanted to take seriously so they can be distilled down into useful advice for folks without the same experience to make me question my very will to live.
(I’m fine, I’m fine. But hahaha jfc)
(I’m fine, I’m fine. But hahaha jfc)
September 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Nothing like thumbing through fifteen years of hard-won lessons in a field no one’s wanted to take seriously so they can be distilled down into useful advice for folks without the same experience to make me question my very will to live.
(I’m fine, I’m fine. But hahaha jfc)
(I’m fine, I’m fine. But hahaha jfc)
I can appreciate irreverence, but also, sometimes it’s a gateway drug to nihilism.
September 17, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I can appreciate irreverence, but also, sometimes it’s a gateway drug to nihilism.
I’m thinking about our feelings about code in the era of LLMs.
For a long time, the task of coding—the mental process, the interiority of comprehension—was one of the only islands where one’s individual, unique experience was worth protecting and valuing… (contd)
For a long time, the task of coding—the mental process, the interiority of comprehension—was one of the only islands where one’s individual, unique experience was worth protecting and valuing… (contd)
September 13, 2025 at 5:48 PM
I’m thinking about our feelings about code in the era of LLMs.
For a long time, the task of coding—the mental process, the interiority of comprehension—was one of the only islands where one’s individual, unique experience was worth protecting and valuing… (contd)
For a long time, the task of coding—the mental process, the interiority of comprehension—was one of the only islands where one’s individual, unique experience was worth protecting and valuing… (contd)
Just hanging out this morning thinking about how we’ve been encouraged in tech to be the most interchangeable pieces possible, while also being made to believe that being the most perfect cog makes us some kind of wizard, a being of pure thought.
September 11, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Just hanging out this morning thinking about how we’ve been encouraged in tech to be the most interchangeable pieces possible, while also being made to believe that being the most perfect cog makes us some kind of wizard, a being of pure thought.