Mastodawn

This week on Counting Stuff, writing docs. It's important people, and you need a theory of mind about who is reading the docs to do it well because there's no one size fits all. #data

https://www.counting-stuff.com/please-write-docs-with-a-theory-of-mind/

Please write docs with a theory of mind

It really shows when people don't do this

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Mar 17

This week on Counting Stuff, a lesson we learn, and probably someone earlier in their career can benefit from. Data work carries power, meaning it will be used for work politics whether you know it or not #data
https://www.counting-stuff.com/your-data-work-is-part-of-work-politics/

Your data work is part of work politics

And there's no escaping it

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Mar 10

This week on Counting Stuff, it was bound to happen, another post about Time related news and stuff. Like how DST broke Claude. And did you know they're planning to update the definition of the SI Second? =O #data

https://www.counting-stuff.com/daylight-savings-broke-software-again-and-other-time-news/

Daylight savings broke software (again) and other Time News!

Every so often I just have to indulge in this topic

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Mar 3

This week on Counting Stuff, I guess I was a bit tired and cranky about the increasing pressure for product "velocity" that I've been hearing for the past 5+ years that's getting way out of hand now #data

https://www.counting-stuff.com/velocity-straight-into-a-cul-de-sac/

Velocity straight into a cul-de-sac

Warp speeeeeeeeed

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Feb 24

This week on Counting Stuff, just bumped into an article reminding me that running surveys is hard, and getting ever trickier #data
https://www.counting-stuff.com/surveys-arent-getting-easier-to-do/

Surveys aren't getting easier to do

It's gotten easier to screw up someone else's survey!

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Feb 17

This week on Counting Stuff, "Measuring friction" is a thing many expect us quants to be able to do, but honestly we're just measuring indirect shadows of friction-like effects #data

https://www.counting-stuff.com/measuring-ux-friction-in-practice/

Measuring UX friction in practice

A short while ago, I was musing on how one of the most common things we are tasked to fight against is this notion of "user friction". In UX we keep getting asked to bring a frictionless future... to nowhereThanks to the many people who have reached out with leads

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Feb 10

This week on Counting Stuff, LLMs made code "cheap and disposable" which has all sorts of implications, but for me, someone that mostly writes throwaway code, it means new and exciting ways to get more data that used to be too hard to get
#data

https://www.counting-stuff.com/data-work-in-the-fast-fashion-code-era/

Data work in the fast fashion code era

There's probably more upsides for us than SWEs

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Feb 3

This week on Counting Stuff, a bit of reflection on a mistake I still catch myself making, where I take a shortcut and jump directly to metrics and measurement without pausing to ask what construct we're interested in, esp for more novel problems
#data
https://www.counting-stuff.com/avoid-the-lure-of-working-on-metrics-over-constructs/

Avoid the lure of working on metrics over constructs

I should know better, but even I catch myself doing this.

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Jan 27

This week on Counting Stuff, if I have to shovel a ton of snow, y'all get to read about how weather observations of snow are surprisingly Really Tricky because snow is just a really funky material #data

https://www.counting-stuff.com/measuring-snow-is-decidedly-not-easy/

Measuring Snow is Decidedly Not Easy

I'm done enough shoveling this weekend. zzzz.

Counting Stuff

Randy Au 🙃Jan 20

This week on Counting Stuff, the simple act of measuring where a screw hole almost drives me nuts and takes much more time than I expected, and so I wrote about it #data
https://www.counting-stuff.com/bridging-real-measurements-to-idealized-ones/

Bridging real measurements to idealized ones

Why is the real world so ... messy =\

Counting Stuff

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