Iris

That problematic person who keeps popping up in your feeds. Blogs (or, according to HackerNews "seed[s] extreme left wing ideas into the minds of vulnerable HN members with my demented, violent writing") at https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/posts

Liberapay: https://en.liberapay.com/iris_meredith/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/IrisMeredithandherblog

Public Key

npub1wgwtv03p6gfd6fjssxtc6l4gfa8v94pnrl98zxscpvnwl7myz8uqrjv64j

NIP-05 Address

iris_meredith_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8y89k8csayykayeggr9ud065y7nkz6se3ljn3rgvqkfh0ldjpr7qpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsawgqat

Publishing to

public.relaying.io

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1wgwtv03p6gfd6fjssxtc6l4gfa8v94pnrl98zxscpvnwl7myz8uqrjv64j

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Last Notes

2026-05-05 05:12:27 UTC

Well, I tried Claude Code. It's less bad than GLM, but alas, I didn't get the "Hallelujah! I see the light" moment that would let me become an AI grifter. Pity, really.
I did notice an interesting thing though: the people who get the best results from coding agents tend to be the people who think they're awful, which says some interesting things about engineering judgement. Read the article here:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/engineering-judgement-claude-paradox

2026-04-30 09:12:15 UTC

Look, I hate it, you hate it, we all hate it. Unfortunately, thanks to the general state of funding for artists, creatives and such in the anglosphere, it's also unavoidable.
If you're thinking about supporting an independent writer in keeping a roof over their head, this would be a very convenient time to do it: I need to pay rent and pay for monthly parking for our vehicle in a few days, and I'm not entirely clear as to how I'm going to do it.

2026-04-22 06:32:48 UTC

It is once again time for me to reintroduce myself, I think. I'm Iris: I write a blog at deadsimpletech.com/blog about the impacts of the tech industry on culture and humanity in general.
I also work as a technical consultant and coach/mentor in the data, infrastructure and web spaces.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/446/935/681/458/954/original/ab8057c111ac56a8.png

2026-04-13 05:48:07 UTC

A new article: this one's an extension of last year's article on the subject of wank, and it discusses why wank is discursively effective despite being annoying as hell. Many thanks to @npub1hw6…gked and [@whitequark](https://social.treehouse.systems/@whitequark ) for productive conversations on here that led to me developing some of these ideas:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/why-redacted-wins

2026-04-07 06:15:15 UTC

A new article, in which Iris attempts to persuade investors and people in the general tech and startup ecosystem in New Zealand that they need to build a lot more affordable housing if they want to get the kind of ecosystem that they've expressed a desire for:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/startups-affordable-housing-new-zealand

2026-04-07 03:02:21 UTC

It is surprisingly hard to express "the primary demographic for startup founders at the moment is nepobaby failsons" in a way that's appropriate for consumption by investors.

2026-03-31 08:21:08 UTC

- reply

rent. I can never be both. If I'm struggling to feed myself and pay my bills, I can"t be the person who writes those articles that everyone shares. If I'm the person who writes those articles, I can't be struggling as much as I am because I'm clearly fairly capable and socially adjusted.
I guess what I'd say for these days is that we can be *both*. I can be smart *and* need the help of readers to pay rent: neither invalidates the other. And yes, it should be different. But it isn't.

2026-03-31 08:18:58 UTC

Today is the transgender day of visibility. I don't know what to say more globally on the matter, but personally: there is a part of me that is the heterodox tech thinker. I write articles: I get quite a few views, I am popular. Then there's the trans side of me: the person who can't get a job however good and socially well-adjusted I am. Those parts don't often cohabit in people's minds. I can be the clever person who write the things that people love, or I can be the trans girl trying to make

2026-03-29 09:45:23 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@iris_meredith/116311817974687217
Resources are running low, rent needs to be paid and the relevant support systems are distinctly unhelpful, so I'm going to be pushing out more LinkedIn-relevant articles for the next little while. Apologies to those who read my work for the critical essays.
#note1zzx…trat

2026-03-29 09:44:55 UTC

A new article, this one about the application of Clausewitz's concept of friction to Software Engineering:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/friction_software_engineering

2026-03-26 04:35:55 UTC

New article: today we talk about the psychological impacts of functioning in a thoroughly enshittified economy where everything seems to be routed through tech:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/digital_acedia

2026-03-23 07:37:19 UTC

It is once again time to do one of my semi-regular fundraising posts wherein, if you wish to support my writing and analytical work, you can do so at the links below! Moving is expensive, and the more I get through these channels the more essays you can expect, so... there is incentive, I guess?
https://www.patreon.com/c/IrisMeredithandherblog
https://en.liberapay.com/iris_meredith/
https://donate.stripe.com/6oE2a30hh3my2reeUY

2026-03-21 06:44:57 UTC

I've finally, in my extremity, actually produced some advertising material for my coaching offerings (it was like pulling teeth, but so it goes).
If anyone feels like spreading it around judiciously, it might prove helpful.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/265/797/922/320/338/original/7c39c4d599d10a87.png

2026-03-17 00:33:45 UTC

This bitch has a library card again! For a good library, even!
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/241/701/074/563/277/original/f1b335239a742bce.jpg

2026-02-15 08:43:49 UTC

New post, and this one's definitely one of my weirder ones: it's about how most of the tech industry shows symptoms of something that looks like gender dysphoria.
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/carbon_dysphoria

2026-02-15 01:46:56 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/116072105823598977
You should definitely support Glyph: they do really good work and are clever and such. And I'm not just saying that because they've been complimentary about *my* work in the past.
#note1anu…3ke2

2026-01-30 07:45:43 UTC

I've written my thoughts on what you, as a software professional, can do to make yourself less susceptible to being displaced by AI in our current wave of tech madness. In short, learn your tools well, build and deploy things as often as you can, don't avoid the unfashionable work and learn a field that isn't writing software.
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/ai_proof_engineer

2026-01-25 21:30:32 UTC

I finally have a page on my website for my coaching program! I do one-on-one and small group sessions where you learn engineering soft skills such as git and the use of the linux command line. We offer a web dev flavour using Astro and an R one using Quarto.
https://deadsimpletech.com/coaching

2026-01-13 21:35:28 UTC

- reply

I hate to break it to you, but I'm already getting "you didn't use the right models!" and "clearly you prompted it wrong"

2025-12-15 06:01:01 UTC

OK, so apparently the way to do well on Mastodon is to post about R, software engineering and DevOps, and the way to do well on Bluesky is to post interesting essays about the social analysis of tech. I have not yet figured out how to do well on LinkedIn.

2025-12-04 05:20:41 UTC

Alright, another one of the "applying Clausewitz to tech" posts is done! This one's about how failed software projects are almost always *strategic* failures rather than simply tactical ones:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/failed_software_projects

2025-08-09 05:25:34 UTC

A new article: long, strange and about Gravity's Rainbow:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/schwarzgerat

2025-07-16 00:18:48 UTC

It's been almost a year since I started writing regularly and (partially related) promoting my professional consulting services. I've done an awful lot to try and change myself and become a better businesswoman in that time, and while I've made some progress, I think I'm forced to face the fact

2025-06-28 05:37:29 UTC

- reply

Am I missing something stupid here, or is Forgejo really like this?

2025-06-28 05:37:04 UTC

So, trying to push to the Codeberg container registry as part of some client work
The Codeberg registry only accepts image names in the form of <domain>/<user>/<image>
However, container image names don't support upper-case values
Both my username and the username of the client have upper-case values in them
It appears that my username might have locked me out of using the container registry

2025-03-02 02:22:32 UTC

Understanding that the USA isn't the only meaningful country in the world seems to be a real stretch for a lot of Americans at the moment.

2025-02-04 01:29:28 UTC

Today's post: not my best work, because what I'm writing about is so deeply stupid that it's hard to formulate a coherent critique. Still, I think our usual AI critic crowd might like parts of it:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/licking_ai_boot

2024-12-17 03:04:45 UTC

@npub1hr7…jxyc
Wait, you've been following me? Damn, I'm deeply flattered. I love your blog!

2024-12-16 23:13:35 UTC

This one just keeps getting more and more relevant in some uncomfortable ways:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/fascism_mirror

2024-12-05 21:40:21 UTC

- reply

Kinda? Unfortunately the weekend is the only time when I have undisturbed time to think, so I end up doing most of my work then.

2024-11-17 21:48:03 UTC

A new post! This one, I'm sure, will get very normal responses on LinkedIn:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/scrumlord_regime
#agile #uspol

2024-10-14 01:59:34 UTC

We need to learn history and the classics in large part, I think, because it disabuses us of ideas about our uniqueness. Our unique moral goodness, our unique depravity, our uniquely terrible ideas... they all fall away in the light of ten thousand years. And once we're no longer uniquely brilliant or uniquely terrible or uniquely whatever, our current problems start seeming small enough to tackle.