Irene Zhang

Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research. OS hacker. Cat wrangler. Shoe lover.

Website: https://irenezhang.net/
Pronouns: She/her

Public Key

npub1uvkea4euhqhmv26d4hj2m79exkxaafqygmet6h0ngqd622778mjq4mcjyf

NIP-05 Address

irene_at_discuss.systems@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswxtv76u7tstak9dx6me9dlzuntrw75szydu4athe5qxa9900raeqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds4r2f96

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1uvkea4euhqhmv26d4hj2m79exkxaafqygmet6h0ngqd622778mjq4mcjyf

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Last Notes

2026-04-07 18:55:50 UTC

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when I was pretty young (15 or 16), my mom would send me to the store. Once a man blocked me between his car and mine and tried to get me to go home and have sex with him for money in the grocery store parking lot. Catcalls were common when I was younger and lived in the Midwest or Boston. In Seattle, I had someone ask me out in the pasta aisle. If it’s hot and I wear a dress people will make creepy (but probably what they think are complimentary) comments. My 60-ish year old neighbor made a point of interrupting me and commenting when I was washing my car on my driveway in a tennis dress.

2026-04-07 18:26:35 UTC

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I stopped grocery shopping. I hated it. I figure skate for exercise because it’s mostly women and gay men at the rink. I spend so much time with (mostly well behaved but oblivious) men at work that I mostly go to women-centered spaces now, especially if it’s on my own.

2026-03-01 21:32:41 UTC

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116154465008439745
This is so good. Everyone should have to watch this clip, especially in tech. Paraphrasing: “If you want to include women/minorites, but have no plan to keep them safe, that is not inclusivity, that is exploitation.”

2026-01-18 20:30:03 UTC

I’ve been keeping an eye on recent car releases as one of our cars is 24 years old and the other is a deeply impractical #miata The Acura Integra is suuuper interesting especially at the price but the type S only comes in a manual (that bizarrely comes with cruise control and auto steering, so basically is about as self driving as a Tesla). However, it’s really hard to justify another fully gas car, let alone another manual. Anyone have obscure car recommendations for a hybrid or electric but fun to drive car??

2026-01-10 19:07:20 UTC

Wow, I have not been this seethingly angry in a while. So yesterday was the National Figure Skating championship where the women skaters set some amazing world records. My skating club director sent out an email saying that we could all watch in the Kraken sports bar above the rink. When the kids from the club got there, the bar REFUSED to switch from the football game to the competition, saying “We are a sports bar, we have to show sports”. SO THE BAR ABOVE MY SKATING RINK SAYS SKATING IS NOT A SPORT. Someone better get fired and apologize for this. #seattle #kraken

2025-12-12 18:39:30 UTC

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ok I’ve been meaning to read that one but it will probably make me really depressed

2025-12-12 18:21:24 UTC

Men, have you read any books about feminism or the patriarchy? They must be a full-length book at least 100 pages. Audio books are fine but they must be 1+ hour.

2025-12-12 05:07:29 UTC

Would folks be interested if I ran an angry feminist reading group? Allies definitely welcome. I want to read Entitled with some folks but thought it might be a good community building exercise to do it over Zoom.

2025-12-06 23:34:56 UTC

It’s Pixel’s (our smolest cat) birthday today! She celebrated by taking a nap by herself in the middle of our king-sized bed. #cats #catsofmastodon #tuxedocat #caturday
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/675/240/400/667/827/original/ac146b70b75849f4.jpeg

2025-12-06 19:30:47 UTC

“There’s often a sense that women in the tech world make a big deal out of small events. But the myriad ways in which they are told their presence is illegitimate, that tells them that they don’t belong, is a constant pressure pushing them towards leaving technology (and game journalism, and the public sphere). In particular, when women in technology also have public voices, as with Anita Sarkeesian or Brianna Wu or Kathy Sierra, the pressure can be — is often intended to be — crushing.” - I guess 2025 is the year that I found my voice. https://saturation.social/@debcha/115668796489388403

2025-12-04 19:16:31 UTC

Because of my new nonprofit, I’ve been digging into local food chains and food insecurity and it’s been an interesting area for me to learn about because I love food and nerding out about it but also because I look at a through an engineering lens and most of the people that work in the industry are not engineers. I thought folks here might be interested too so I’ll write as I explore but I’m also thinking of writing something later.

2025-12-04 07:05:00 UTC

The belly isn’t a trap. #cats #catsofmastodon
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/660/022/866/890/954/original/0fe3004fa2b56f42.jpeg
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2025-12-02 17:53:13 UTC

I just learned today that UW quietly graduated one of the harassers, Pratyush Patel, who had committed serious academic misconduct in addition to harassing women. Specifically he has a pattern of emotionally manipulating and abusing women to get them to write his code and papers. It’s unclear that anything in his thesis was either his idea or his work and yet UW has decided to give him a PhD, on a thesis committee led by my advisor, Arvind Krishnamurthy. This is deeply disappointing and disgusting as no one should be able to profit off of the emotional abuse of women but also because it devalues all other PhD degrees from UW, including mine. In contrast, many of the women have dropped out of academia/decided to not get their PhDs because of sexual harassment and bullying, so we can see who the university is valuing and not. The HR investigator was given significant evidence of his abuse in the form of text messages, emails and interviews, including from other universities, and chose not to include it in the report as it was “out of scope”. Despite the fact that he clearly targeted women and used them to perpetrate significant academic fraud.

2025-11-19 17:16:55 UTC

Somewhat overlooked in the Epstein emails are his communications with Larry Summers, former president of Harvard and still faculty there, about how to sleep with a woman that he was mentoring. They called her “peril” as in yellow peril because she’s Chinese. He writes that he commented on her clothes and asked her out to drinks but she declined. He writes: “She must be very confused or maybe wants to cut me off but wants professional connection a lot and so holds to it,” SO HE KNEW HIS BEHAVIOR WAS INAPPROPRIATE AND KEPT DOING IT ANYWAY. This is just all so typical of academia. Also these emails were exchanged in 2019 in case you were thinking that this was just behavior of the past.

2025-11-16 22:37:54 UTC

Reminder to anyone possibly visiting soon, keep an eye on water glasses at my house because we have a fluffy cat that only drinks like this. #cats #catsofmastodon
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/561/768/205/346/011/original/8dcbc4eb6a9476e0.mp4

2025-11-01 01:40:36 UTC

I’m an angry feminist soy sauce this year. #halloween https://discuss.systems/@dan/115471758127380684
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2025-10-28 23:00:18 UTC

I'm excited to announce that @npub1f20…d5dd and I have been working on a new non-profit, Rootstock Northwest, with some folks in the local food industry: https://rootstocknw.org
We have three goals:
1. Give fresh produce to the food insecure in our communities.
2. Support local producers and farmers to invest in our community food chain
3. Deliver direct to homes to make fresh, local food accessible for all and minimize overhead.
We believe that everyone deserves access to fresh, high quality food and that we can simultaneously feed our communities and support local food chains by delivering produce to directly to those in need. With the current government instability, it is more important than ever to ensure the most vulnerable are fed and that our local food ecosystems are strengthened.
#seattle #nonprofit #FoodInsecurity

2025-10-11 02:05:07 UTC

Went to a Michelin-starred Hunan restaurant in Beijing last night. Notable were the delicious Chinese pomegranates that they served first, the stinky tofu, the lake fish with yellow pepper sauce and shaobing with lotus root soup and tripe and pickled radish soup.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/353/077/419/399/453/original/5c023ef9922fb1b5.jpeg
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2025-10-02 19:04:39 UTC

Pretty exciting news in the Zhang-Ports household: after 10 years, we’ve finally gotten a proper Chinese vent hood. The one that came with our house was decent for a white household but, as the guy at the Asian store says, white people don’t *really* cook. This one is finally acceptable because it has a stir-fry button.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/306/126/999/762/107/original/e0d8f85e103776d8.jpeg
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2025-10-02 14:55:41 UTC

This is when things started going off the rails in this country https://noc.social/@todayilearned/115302830443069084

2025-09-19 06:48:52 UTC

This Wikipedia summary of the new book from one of my favorite authors is .. too real?? Not sure I’m emotionally prepared for this book.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/229/624/121/371/315/original/29b92345dd9d6d65.jpeg

2025-09-12 23:53:16 UTC

Wow, recent events have been a real roller coaster ride that has made me rethink my life choices. Should I be buying more hexes on Etsy? There are witches on Etsy? Should I become an Etsy witch??

2025-08-26 19:13:24 UTC

Can I offer anyone a #Miata root terminal in these trying times? I finally gave in and turned off the touchscreen lock when the car is moving because if I need to hit one button to get directions it’s just sooo much safer to do it on the touchscreen than with the fiddly knob.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/096/656/315/255/907/original/b528d83190fd89ad.jpeg

2025-08-13 19:12:41 UTC

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he’s really not the best at hiding.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/023/042/442/575/041/original/969be8218b89e65b.jpeg
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2025-08-01 15:12:08 UTC

DOGE cost us $21 billion. Not surprised but still .. when will we stop believing in mediocre white men? https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/07/31/2025/the-217-billion-blunder-new-psi-report-reveals-billions-in-taxpayer-dollars-squandered-by-doge

2025-07-25 16:52:18 UTC

I’ve been making beautiful fruit syrups by draining fruit for ice cream. While they make my ice cream icy, they are delicious in iced tea and cocktails.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/114/914/907/582/003/582/original/be9ebf357230e721.jpeg

2025-07-17 19:01:25 UTC

I’ve almost hit the 2 year anniversary of my broken leg/ankle. I went back to my orthopedic surgeon and discovered that in the last 2 years, he’s taken up skating as a hobby and almost broken HIS ankle. 😂

2025-07-04 17:25:31 UTC

Teen Vogue nails it again. The American empire (like all others) is built on hate and cruelty. We are simply watching it decline. Unfortunately, also like all other empires, it is going to kill a bunch of people on the way down. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/trump-admin-american-history-indigenous-people

2025-07-02 22:16:14 UTC

Me
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/114/785/948/181/270/570/original/461702c7c13415ae.mp4

2025-06-23 01:34:54 UTC

I recently found out that all of the women who have reported sexual harassment this year to the University of Washington Allen School of CSE received a “needs improvement” on their Review of Progress, except [@Hello_KayT](https://discuss.systems/@Hello_KayT ) presumably because she published both a MICRO and a HotOS paper this year. I’m speechless. If nothing else tells you how UW treats women who complain, this tells you everything. I would give them a needs improvement on .. sexism.

2025-06-21 19:02:51 UTC

My favorite meme of the day. Never engage China in a large-numbers-of-people-marching-in-formation contest. https://universeodon.com/@jaykuo/114722062399553601
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/114/722/902/339/225/576/original/0507be36f01fd175.jpeg

2025-06-08 18:07:36 UTC

Having coffee in our ridiculously scenic front garden. This year has been so hectic that I haven’t even gotten a chance to slow down and enjoy Seattle false summer.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/114/649/074/921/384/303/original/159c7d6117d398e0.jpeg

2025-04-18 20:00:21 UTC

Again, Teen Vogue is willing to say things that we all know. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/fsu-shooter-radicalized-white-man-real-threat-oped

2025-04-11 17:08:02 UTC

I started feeding our #cats a frozen cooked human grade turkey patty food as Max has hit 16 and could use the easier to digest protein. Due to supply chain issues, the food has been temporarily paused and now I’m on a wait list for cat food….

2025-03-21 15:38:27 UTC

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Oh no, I found this photo is probably fake. Sad. #cats

2025-03-21 15:30:55 UTC

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The original grumpy cat. #cats
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2025-03-21 15:29:21 UTC

I always knew that there were #cats in the Forbidden city but TIL that they are one of the few places in China to run a trap neuter release program and supposedly some of the cats are descended from royal cats. https://fridayeveryday.com/forbidden-city-cats-become-celebrities-in-their-own-right/

2025-03-08 20:18:24 UTC

Minion is trying really hard to get the cool new kid on the block to like him. #cats #caturday #catsofmastodon
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/114/128/656/699/751/877/original/7805b205aa4f1e23.mp4

2025-03-05 02:04:14 UTC

I wrote a postmortem of the University of Washington harassment investigation. I don’t get into details but I do explain my perspective and name the men involved, plus some lessons learned at the end. https://irenezhang.net/blog/2025/03/04/uw-harassment.html

2025-02-18 21:41:46 UTC

First warmish day in a while, and Minion got stuck outside. Don’t worry he eventually followed Max back in. #cats #catsofmastodon
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2025-02-06 05:25:24 UTC

The average woman’s career trajectory. The alligator is people asking you to fix harassment.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/113/955/276/086/157/252/original/8822d3a70b41b8cb.png

2025-02-01 03:43:03 UTC

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while we were out of town he stole a bagel from our friend that was house sitting. This was captured on camera.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/113/926/562/025/193/526/original/9e033344216a375e.jpeg

2025-02-01 03:35:16 UTC

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oh my bad, here are some photos of said cat. #cats #cattax
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/113/926/530/860/755/282/original/f8123fa9545868a1.jpeg
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2025-02-01 03:18:01 UTC

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this was my solution. I literally got an unwellness cat.

2025-01-26 10:22:48 UTC

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see looks like Indiana
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/113/894/160/054/428/028/original/b9f50d063ca710cc.jpeg

2025-01-26 09:22:33 UTC

Well, trip to England is going well so far. My comment is that it looks like Indiana and @npub1f20…d5dd wants to take an exit every time he sees a funny name.

2025-01-22 08:35:25 UTC

Welp, deleting instagram now too. https://misskey.de/notes/a3ax4tqomg

2024-12-19 19:30:17 UTC

New ISO standard cat order has dropped.
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2024-12-17 00:29:47 UTC

Max is getting into the season! Meowy Holidays to everyone that celebrates. (In case you were worried, Max promptly fell asleep, he seems to think this is a new blanket)
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2024-12-05 12:50:36 UTC

Unbelievable. #UWAllen administration has cancelled the annual holiday party student skit because it (obliquely) criticizes the way that the sexual harassment incidents have been handled. I’ve seen the script and it’s a smart satire of students being eaten by murder robots that lampoons recent ethical AI concerns and how students have been banned from protecting themselves (from sexual harasser/murder robots).
This is the first time in DECADES, that the skit has been cancelled (the only other time was when the holiday party itself was cancelled in 2020). To cancel the skit as a way to stifle student speech is unacceptable.
If you are angry and an alum that has enjoyed previous skits, please email the school’s director, Magda. This is something that she can easily fix. The students are organizing an alternative skit after the official holiday party. I will be using this fund to help them pay for anything that they need (eg props, food). https://chuffed.org/project/fight-sexual-harassment-in-the-allen-school

2024-11-25 05:40:59 UTC

My secret to being a 10x engineer: a daily lie down. It’s the opposite of a daily stand up. If I don’t take a nap with the cats every day I feel bad and my productivity drops. Follow me for more life hacks.

2024-11-15 03:07:03 UTC

Asking for help for the UW systems lab women. As the sexual harassment situation drags on with no end in sight, the grad students are now unable to afford their lawyer. So I started a fundraiser for them if you would like to support. https://www.chuffed.org/project/fight-sexual-harassment-in-the-allen-school

2024-11-13 16:17:50 UTC

Happy Wednesday everyone! It’s been a rough last week so here is a pile of #cats #catsofmastodon
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/113/476/544/791/453/719/original/91b3a1dc31ed3f32.mp4

2024-11-07 02:19:03 UTC

Pro-tip in these dark times: buy a cheap stethoscope and listen to your #cat purr.
We recently learned that our cat Max has a potential heart murmur so we got a stethoscope to see if we could hear it ourselves. This experiment was unsuccessful because he wouldn’t stop purring but we learned that listening to a cat purr through a stethoscope is amazingly soothing.
#catsofmastodon
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2024-11-03 18:42:36 UTC

We object to this concept of “daylight savings”. How do we speak to a manager??
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2024-10-27 03:09:10 UTC

We took Max and Pixel to the vet yesterday and Pixel insisted on getting into Max’s carrier and riding home with him. They were both more ok with this than expected. Happy #caturday!
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2024-10-26 16:28:23 UTC

In Seattle, you can buy cute tufty moss for your yard. I’m in love. #mosstodon
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2024-10-20 02:51:13 UTC

I’ve made an advancement in food technology. Cooking a meatloaf upside down (which I always do) *on top of baked beans* with a layer of bacon in between. Will report back on how it turns out but let’s be honest, it’s a giant meatball on top of a pot of beans, we all know how this is going to turn out.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/113/337/478/028/425/195/original/794e9996a8e62efc.jpeg

2024-10-05 22:11:20 UTC

Attention to my faculty friends: The University of Washington CS school is an unsafe environment for women, so as grad application season starts, please tell your students not to apply. There are at least 3 men in the systems lab that have sexually harassed numerous women and they continue to do so. More details below:
It has been 3 months since the women of the UW systems lab sent a letter detailing three incidents of sexual harassment and bullying. The university has bounced them from the Title IX office to HR with no resolution. There is an ongoing HR investigation with the women handing over dozens of incidents and pages of documentation (emails, text messages). At least one of the men has been documented to be physically violent, and he has sexually harassed women across the department, not just in the lab.
Despite this, the women of the lab have been forced to leave their coworking space, leaving them in a precarious position where they must risk interacting with violent men. The systems lab is still holding lab events with the men actively under investigation. The Allen School has become a place where women are AFRAID to go to work and at least three women have been driven out due to harassment. If you know women who are thinking of attending grad school, tell them to avoid UW, especially in systems. I’m happy to put them in touch with the women of the UW systems lab or discuss alternate options with them.

2024-09-26 21:47:21 UTC

Maybe @npub19mh…v9e6 conferences should make PC chairs and members attest that they are not under active Title IX or HR investigation?? I’d really love to not have to deal with sexual harassment when giving them my free labor.

2024-09-26 01:31:16 UTC

Wow, the UW systems and networking lab is literally in the middle of an HR investigation into harassment, and the faculty are back to business as usual with lab events WITH NO CHANGES. No code of conduct, no sexual harassment training, NOTHING. They’ve locked the women in a lab and continue to not provide a safe environment for them to learn or work. Meanwhile, the women are spending hours talking to investigators about emotional and painful memories (and documented incidents), while trying to get their research done and take classes. I’m speechless and deeply ashamed of my old lab.

2024-09-06 21:56:38 UTC

Every single response to my blog post on Hacker News. https://discuss.systems/@irene/113048820633211475

2024-09-01 05:23:26 UTC

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I know but I’m EMBARRASSED about it.

2024-08-31 19:52:19 UTC

NOOO Seattle is ruined. I went to a fancy tasting menu and the table next to us kept talking about networking, virtualization, serverless and IPv6.

2024-08-30 03:21:47 UTC

If you don’t think tech is full of misogynistic men, then you might be one of them.
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2024-08-18 01:24:54 UTC

Pixel would like everyone to admire her fluffy belly on #blackcatappreciationday
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2024-08-12 14:20:48 UTC

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It’s the worst because I do think that it’s great that marginalized kids (trans, queer, whatever) can find their people online but so can the white supremacists.

2024-08-12 00:41:50 UTC

Can I just say again to everyone in tech doing DEI: It is immoral and unethical to recruit women to a fundamentally unsafe environment

2024-07-24 20:11:10 UTC

I wrote a blog post about what it is like being #womenintech within the framework of #moralphilosophy and ethics. #consistencyforthewin https://irenezhang.net/blog/2024/07/24/misogyny.html

2024-06-28 04:46:28 UTC

BIG STRETCH #cats #catsofmastodon
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