Yvonne Lam
@yvonnezlam.bsky.social
I play with books, cats, food, yarn, and dirt, not all at the same time. Software engineer. Society of People Interested in Boring Things. She/her, cis.
Yes. Some of us could use fewer circuses.
We…are starved for spectacle?
Putting aside the thing about paying actors, which ouch in this economy — I’m very interested to hear where y’all live that you can even get a little hungry for spectacle, much less starve for it. I would like to move to there.
Putting aside the thing about paying actors, which ouch in this economy — I’m very interested to hear where y’all live that you can even get a little hungry for spectacle, much less starve for it. I would like to move to there.
I don’t begrudge anyone for finding Avatar too corny but when people are just like “yeah it’s good spectacle but that’s it” I am so bewildered because we are STARVED for spectacle. I’d rather see a $350 million movie where every red cent went on the screen than one where $250M went to actor salaries
December 3, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Yes. Some of us could use fewer circuses.
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
I see people asking "I have UI skills, how do I get better at UX?" My answer is: learn content design.
You can't hide behind whizbang styling when your medium is a sentence with hyperlinks to other sentences. Starting with the content also breaks you out of seeing work as a screen to be "laid out".
You can't hide behind whizbang styling when your medium is a sentence with hyperlinks to other sentences. Starting with the content also breaks you out of seeing work as a screen to be "laid out".
December 3, 2025 at 2:03 PM
I see people asking "I have UI skills, how do I get better at UX?" My answer is: learn content design.
You can't hide behind whizbang styling when your medium is a sentence with hyperlinks to other sentences. Starting with the content also breaks you out of seeing work as a screen to be "laid out".
You can't hide behind whizbang styling when your medium is a sentence with hyperlinks to other sentences. Starting with the content also breaks you out of seeing work as a screen to be "laid out".
Adding to Mount To Be Read
December 3, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Adding to Mount To Be Read
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
America is a country that will test UBI hundreds of times, get the same radically positive results each time, and still look at it askance, but will also put untested robotaxis on the road because a billionaire threw a shit fit.
An Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees a staggering reduction in homelessness. The program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years, and at the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees staggering reduction in homelessness
The state program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years. At the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
www.streetroots.org
December 3, 2025 at 6:27 AM
America is a country that will test UBI hundreds of times, get the same radically positive results each time, and still look at it askance, but will also put untested robotaxis on the road because a billionaire threw a shit fit.
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
Melville would’ve had an exceptionally chaotic LiveJournal
Charles Darwin would have had a Tumblr
December 3, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Melville would’ve had an exceptionally chaotic LiveJournal
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
Unlike other English counties with bears on their coats of arms, the silvered Ghost Bear of Hookland is unmuzzled, uncollared and unchained. For the Ghost Bear of armorial bearings is the legendary creature that terrorised the Normans in both its physical and spectral forms.
December 3, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Unlike other English counties with bears on their coats of arms, the silvered Ghost Bear of Hookland is unmuzzled, uncollared and unchained. For the Ghost Bear of armorial bearings is the legendary creature that terrorised the Normans in both its physical and spectral forms.
omg what a beautiful cover! And the book sounds amazing! Adding to Mount To Be Read
Save 30% on #NewBook "Inhabitants of the Deep" by Jonathan Howard, which undertakes a black ecocritical study of the deep (oceans, rivers, lakes) in African American literature. #BlackStudies
buff.ly/ejHedv7
buff.ly/ejHedv7
December 3, 2025 at 2:01 PM
omg what a beautiful cover! And the book sounds amazing! Adding to Mount To Be Read
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
ridiculous question but syllabus season: teachable short text that outlines some aesthetic principles of modernism?
December 3, 2025 at 1:36 PM
ridiculous question but syllabus season: teachable short text that outlines some aesthetic principles of modernism?
Has someone told the cars to smile more?
“Waymo has been trying to make its cars ‘confidently assertive,’ says Chris Ludwick, a senior director of product management with Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet.”
Waymo’s Self-Driving Cars Are Suddenly Behaving Like New York Cabbies
Autonomous vehicles are adopting humanlike qualities, making illegal U-turns and flooring it the second the light goes green.
www.wsj.com
December 3, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Has someone told the cars to smile more?
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
Because it’s not the problem and it’s a bad design question for a solution.
That gives you a control and surveillance path
the question is how to make sure every student and person gets what they need so that even abusive users aren’t an energy drain
That gives you a control and surveillance path
the question is how to make sure every student and person gets what they need so that even abusive users aren’t an energy drain
Balancing "no person with a disability should be denied accommodations" with "it's important to discourage non-disabled people from pretending to be disabled to take advantage of these accommodations" is really difficult and I don't have a great answer for what anyone should do about it.
December 3, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Because it’s not the problem and it’s a bad design question for a solution.
That gives you a control and surveillance path
the question is how to make sure every student and person gets what they need so that even abusive users aren’t an energy drain
That gives you a control and surveillance path
the question is how to make sure every student and person gets what they need so that even abusive users aren’t an energy drain
We use the concept of empathy to shift risk to individuals and away from systems.
I think personally a lot of people mistake empathetic and nurturing for therapeutic and instructional
without realizing that sometimes things aren’t safe and shouldn’t feel safe because your “safety” is at the expense of others
without realizing that sometimes things aren’t safe and shouldn’t feel safe because your “safety” is at the expense of others
December 3, 2025 at 1:29 PM
We use the concept of empathy to shift risk to individuals and away from systems.
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
As an educator, one of the most significant professional realizations I came to was that all our time limitations on tests are completely arbitrary. Is there a specific reason this is a 90 minute test? Because we think it should take that long or it's most convenient to us?
December 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
As an educator, one of the most significant professional realizations I came to was that all our time limitations on tests are completely arbitrary. Is there a specific reason this is a 90 minute test? Because we think it should take that long or it's most convenient to us?
Everything is reminding me of Adam Phillips on the dangers of desiring omniscience.
There's no rationale, no theory, no evidence that connects chasing replicability to actual scientific progress or discovery. We're looking for ways to bypass the laborious scientific process of exploration. It's a pity that we waste our increasingly limited research resources on futile searches.
December 3, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Everything is reminding me of Adam Phillips on the dangers of desiring omniscience.
Marianne was not committing a crime. Absolutely not.
December 3, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Marianne was not committing a crime. Absolutely not.
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
My books have once again run out (wrapped up Katabasis and The Tiger and the Wolf on the plane).
What's good in SF/F these days?
What's good in SF/F these days?
Please, my books. They have run out.
Going to try and comp all my "recommend me books" lists in one place so people know I already read Murderbot
Going to try and comp all my "recommend me books" lists in one place so people know I already read Murderbot
Introduce yourself with three books you love:
Monday Begins on Saturday - Strugatsky Brothers
Mountains of Mourning - Lois McMaster Bujold
Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K LeGuin
Monday Begins on Saturday - Strugatsky Brothers
Mountains of Mourning - Lois McMaster Bujold
Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K LeGuin
December 3, 2025 at 2:49 AM
My books have once again run out (wrapped up Katabasis and The Tiger and the Wolf on the plane).
What's good in SF/F these days?
What's good in SF/F these days?
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
annual reminder that eggnog counts as a recovery drink
December 3, 2025 at 1:54 AM
annual reminder that eggnog counts as a recovery drink
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
TL;DR
Middle management is hard. Caring is required, but the kind of care you provide matters.
Middle management is hard. Caring is required, but the kind of care you provide matters.
Ashley Willis
The other day I texted my group chat with other leaders outside my organization. The ones I go to when the leadership stuff gets messy and I need perspective fr...
ashley.dev
December 2, 2025 at 10:01 PM
TL;DR
Middle management is hard. Caring is required, but the kind of care you provide matters.
Middle management is hard. Caring is required, but the kind of care you provide matters.
TIL I didn't have those dudes' names muted. I can fix that right now.
I don’t need any more information about Tarantino’s opinions as long as I live. Truly. If he wants to make movies, he should go make movies! But sharing what Tarantino said *on Bret Easton Ellis’ podcast* is like a turducken of I Absolutely Do Not Care Even Slightly.
December 2, 2025 at 11:17 PM
TIL I didn't have those dudes' names muted. I can fix that right now.
I'm glad I was in a little tiny window on zoom when someone brought up the horrible "wartime leader" folk model, so no one could see me roll my eyse.
This is why I could not cover politics full-time, because I would have to always mask at press conferences to prevent other people from seeing my most ridiculous facial expressions.
December 2, 2025 at 11:05 PM
I'm glad I was in a little tiny window on zoom when someone brought up the horrible "wartime leader" folk model, so no one could see me roll my eyse.
Could some kind person make use of image recognition so that I don't have to look at pictures of the President of the United States, please?
December 2, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Could some kind person make use of image recognition so that I don't have to look at pictures of the President of the United States, please?
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
MFW I'm forced to do anything my ADHD brain doesn't want to
Basilica Cistern an underground water cistern in Istanbul 🇹🇷 commissioned by Roman Emperor Justinian I in 6th Century AD. Located near Hagia Sophia, the cistern was built to meet the city's water needs.
#archaeohistories
#archaeohistories
December 2, 2025 at 8:33 PM
MFW I'm forced to do anything my ADHD brain doesn't want to
I am enmeshed in a truly annoying fight over an accommodation, so I needed to read this thread today.
Let me reframe this: perhaps we should not discourage them, as it might also discourage disabled people from seeking accommodations out of fear that they will be accused of faking their disability; or, they will refrain from seeking accommodations out of fear of "not being disabled enough."
Balancing "no person with a disability should be denied accommodations" with "it's important to discourage non-disabled people from pretending to be disabled to take advantage of these accommodations" is really difficult and I don't have a great answer for what anyone should do about it.
December 2, 2025 at 9:41 PM
I am enmeshed in a truly annoying fight over an accommodation, so I needed to read this thread today.
I'm sticking to athleisure, thank you.
The juxtaposition of the shape with the cost gave me a very good laugh
December 2, 2025 at 9:19 PM
I'm sticking to athleisure, thank you.
Reposted by Yvonne Lam
I love this so so much and it is the best part of my day. 😍
Tested my most recent lasercut movable type experiment w/a print for @quinnanya.me' YarnLab. Lead type="Craft is critical", "& fun too!", 〰️⭐️s. Lasercut=YARNLAB (120pt Cooper Black w/added stripes to connect to...), yarn ball, "technology" bubble letters, skeleton, retro Mac #DHmakes +
December 2, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I love this so so much and it is the best part of my day. 😍