Chris Ward
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chrisward.de
Chris Ward
@chrisward.de
2K followers 1.5K following 2.3K posts
Left Britain for Berlin after the EU referendum, learnt German, stood in two elections, now a whisker from citizenship.

ADHDer. Homo. Androider. Engineering Manager. Speaker. Schöneberger. Crow Queen

Posts in 🇬🇧🇩🇪. Views my own. he/him #thfbleibt #fckafd
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chrisward.de
Kudos to Todoist. They're at least giving long-time subscribers the option as to whether or not they pay almost double the current subscription to pay for the company's AI desperation.
Screengrab of an email from Todoist. The text content is... What’s changing   Starting December 10th, 2025, we’re updating the price of our current Pro plan to €7.00 per month or €60.00 per year. As a fully bootstrapped company with no outside investors, this new pricing enables us to continue investing in new features and improvements that we think you’ll love.   What this means for you   As a long-time subscriber, you’ll continue paying €36.00 per year on what will now be called the “Pro Legacy plan”.   However, brand new features released after December 10th will not be incorporated into this Pro Legacy plan. This includes upcoming features like Ramble (voice-to-task) and Todoist Assist (busywork automations), along with other innovations we’re building.   If you remain on the Pro Legacy plan, you’ll keep access to today’s existing feature set, which will continue to be supported and maintained.
November 6, 2025 at 2:09 PM
chrisward.de
Husband got me some new books. ❤️🇮🇪
A pile of three books: Irish for beginners (in German), Selected Writings by Gerry Adams and Reclaiming the European Street by Michael D Higgins.
November 3, 2025 at 7:39 PM
chrisward.de
Fictional deaths that traumatised me the most.

#dcldn25 #droidcon @benkadel.com
A collage of four pictures of traumatising fictional deaths. Starting from top left and going clockwise: Ellie from the film Up. Mufasa from the Lion King. Pretty much Nemo's entire family from Finding Nemo. And K7 from Ben Kadel's droidcon talk.
November 1, 2025 at 7:48 PM
chrisward.de
But anyway I thought it'd be disappointing but it was really cool. Friendly staff too.
Me, Ben and Des at the 90s bar. Ben is holding up a glass shaped like an old Nokia original mobile phone. A Jurassic park sign is hanging above us.
October 31, 2025 at 9:59 PM
chrisward.de
Some of us from #dcldn25 popped to the new 90s themed bar in Covent Garden. Basically, it's like they 3D printed my midlife crisis... It's really cool.

Anyway here's @benkadel.com looking as suspect as usual (the entrance to the bar is via a pepsi machine in a fake video store).
Ben Kadel looking at the adult section of the fake video store from which you enter the bar.
October 31, 2025 at 9:49 PM
chrisward.de
I wrote in my "eulogy" that he was a very weird dad, but that was fine because we were weird kids, so it somehow worked.

He was deeply unconventional, chaotic, disorganised. But he did so much for me, and he never stopped caring.

Dad, I love you. I miss you. I'll make you proud. ❤️
Photo of me as a young kid sitting on the sofa with my dad in his army uniform.
October 31, 2025 at 8:21 AM
chrisward.de
The last time he visited Berlin and wanted to go walking in Tempelhofer Feld with me despite limited mobility.

How he had a chunk of bread ready in his pocket so he could feed the crows with me.

He loved he place. Said he'd go there every day too if he lived in Berlin.
My dad with a packet of cashews, crows flying in the background at Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin.
October 31, 2025 at 8:21 AM
chrisward.de
The 80s pornstar tache!
Photo of my dad in his army uniform with my mum.
October 31, 2025 at 8:21 AM
chrisward.de
Yesterday was my dad's first anniversary. It's been an odd year.

After he died I made my way to City airport for my flight back to Berlin. I kept getting quite vivid sudden memories, so started writing them down (heavily recommend this as grief management technique btw).

Here are some of them...
Me and my dad standing in front of a framed copy of my German election poster.
October 31, 2025 at 8:21 AM
chrisward.de
Ok let's go! #dcldn25
Me about to start my talk
October 30, 2025 at 2:34 PM
chrisward.de
Hey all you lovely people at #dcldn25.

Do design systems interviews fill you with dread? They did with me too. And now I do a talk on it.

"Systems Design interviews for people who hate Systems Design interviews" will be at the TechLead summit at 14:35... in 30 mins. :)
Promotion graphic for my talk.
October 30, 2025 at 2:06 PM
chrisward.de
Something so important: #dcldn25 videos will be accessible for all on YouTube whether or not you attended the conference.

As tech again moves away from openness and sharing, making knowledge accessible is so vital. ❤️
Photo of Greg talking on the droidcon London stage with a screengrab of YouTube videos of conference talks on the screen.
October 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
chrisward.de
The man himself ❤️ @gregfawson.bsky.social

#dcldn25
Picture of Greg speaking at the podium on the droidcon London stage.
October 30, 2025 at 9:06 AM
chrisward.de
Good morning #dcldn25
Picture of the empty droidcon London stage.
October 30, 2025 at 9:05 AM
chrisward.de
Ok London gentrification has gone too far now.
Photo showing the signage of Zeit for Brot, the German Bakery.
October 29, 2025 at 10:16 PM
chrisward.de
I remember wondering, in my youth, whether bird flu would affect me and the answer back then seemed to be "unless you're rubbing birds in your face probably no". So I thought ok whatever.

It feels like I have more skin in the game this time.
Me with a crow on my head, who is happily chomping down on peanuts.
October 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
chrisward.de
Klein-Kampf.
Instagram post, der sagt: Sarkozy will im Knast ein Buch schreiben. Damit haben wir in Deutschland keine guten Erfahrungen gemacht.
October 29, 2025 at 10:21 AM
chrisward.de
I bet you don't even have a favourite photo of your old school.

Here's mine.
A picture of my old school engulfed in flames
October 25, 2025 at 7:14 PM
chrisward.de
Sulu ❤️
My cat Sulu lying on his back on my bed, looking up at the camera.
October 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
chrisward.de
Comic by Adam Tots. A MAGA hat-wearing man is talking to a man carrying a "Gays against drag queens" placard. "We did it, we finally outlawed all the trans people and drag queens. Thanks for your help!", the MAGA man says. The next frame is the other man saying "so who are we going after next?". The frame after is the MAGA man simply smiling. The man repeats "I said who next". Same frame again with the MAGA man smiling. The other man, with a worried expression on his face says, "who...". The MAGA man continues smiling.
October 23, 2025 at 4:43 PM
chrisward.de
Your reminder that those most in need rely most on the tools we build. Those tools must therefore be reliable. And we should never forget that.
Excerpt from BBC news: 'We have a baby who needs formula,' says mother waiting for bank transfer Tonia from Dalry, North Ayrshire, says she is missing £50 after transferring money to her partner this morning. She says she doesn't have a bank card so usually transfers money and uses her partner's card to withdraw cash. "We went to withdraw £15 but it got declined," she says. Tonia transferred another £10 - hoping it was a one off error. But she found that the money was still not there. As we reported earlier, Lloyds banking group has said all its systems, including online banking for the Bank of Scotland are now up and running. But Tonia's partner is still waiting for the transaction to complete, with the bank telling them they are trying to resolve the issue "as quickly as they can". "What an inconvenience this is causing. We have a baby who needs formula," she continues.
October 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
chrisward.de
Are these people ok?
Zeit article with the headline in German: "Cancelling someone is fascism to me".
October 17, 2025 at 9:27 AM
chrisward.de
Vorschlag: Wehrpflicht nur für alle deutschen Ü60. 👍
Screengrab eines Artikels vom stern.de: "Die stärksten Befürworter einer Wehrpflicht finden sich mit 61 Prozent in der älteren Generation (60 Jahre und darüber)"
October 15, 2025 at 3:13 PM
chrisward.de
Thank you to the lovely #UITS crowd today. Was lovely chatting to you. ❤️🏳️‍🌈
Photo of me giving my talk at the Unicorns in Tech Summit 25: How my ADHD made me a better engineering manager.
October 11, 2025 at 3:43 PM
chrisward.de
This is the Microsoft Office paperclip now. Feel old yet?
Gen AI sparkle-star trio icon
October 9, 2025 at 6:36 PM