Elisabeth Hendrickson

Ever wanted to model the effect of different org structures? I have a simulation for you. Been working on it since 2021. Thanks to Claude & Codex I've made more progress in the last 10 weeks than the previous 5 years. It now supports arbitrary topologies, customizable reports, and live animation + static results after a year of sim time.

Play with it here: https://ducksimng.onrender.com/scenarios/studio

And if you can imagine using it to show others what you see, I'd love to talk to you: https://calendly.com/curiousduck/1-1-with-elisabeth?month=2026-07&duration=30

New cover drop! @joeltosi@mastodon.social and I are so stoked about the cover for our book coming out from IT Rev in the fall. WOOOT!

I saw this making the rounds on social media unattributed. I think it's really good, and I want to what I can to make sure that if it's going to go viral, people know where it came from. So here's 3 years of therapy in 60 seconds from the original account that posted it (near as I can tell, anyway). Good stuff. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JYbKmn85ZEs

Claude is currently chewing on a prompt that begins: "Sorry -- do you think it is fixed? It is not fixed."

(Claude claimed to have fixed a bug I'd found in its generated code. It had not actually fixed the bug. But it had given me a fancy explanation for how the bug happened and assurances that it had addressed the problem. This is now the 3rd go-around trying to get Claude to fix the bug.)

AI isn't quite ready to take over the world just yet. Very useful, yes. A human replacement? Nope.

Attended my local #nokings3 protest today and was heartened to see so many people of all ages. I'm in the SF Bay Area but decided not to go into SF for the big one. This was a smaller protest down the peninsula. Felt like half the city turned out. (It wasn't actually that big but it felt like it.) I also go to our regular Saturday protests and they tend to skew older, so it was awesome to see so many younger people.

So, @joeltosi@mastodon.social and I are working on a book. It has a fictional component with a fictional company. And we're gearing up for our pre-sales launch. As it happens, pre-sales will start close to April 1. You maybe see where this is going.

Yup, I've just finished a rough cut of a 90 second video ad spot that has me cracking up so hard I can't breathe. Maybe others won't find it as hilarious as I do. But the buzzwords, oh my word the buzzwords. Much enterprisey, so platform.

I've been known to say "whoopsadoodle" when talking about mistakes. Like "I accidentally knocked my tea off the desk. Whoopsadoodle!"

Currently working in Google docs, and finding that it makes mistakes on my behalf. Henceforth I shall refer to its mistakes as "whoopsagoogles."

Got an email today from an overly optimistic ad sales specialist suggesting that I should advertise on Caltrain billboards. Had a wild moment where I thought: Why U No Ducksim?

(If you've not read the original hipchat blog post about their viral 101 billboard, it's great reading. https://web.archive.org/web/20111201230345/http://blog.hipchat.com/2011/06/23/a-tale-of-a-ridiculous-billboard/)

This thoughtful essay from @tbaxter@mastodon.social on lovingly crafting content in the age of AI slop warmed my heart this morning.

"Amidst all the commoditization there are small human spaces out there, waiting to be discovered, with people working diligently and with care in them.

It's not a movement, so much as just people who still love what it feels like to make something simply because they wanted to make it."

https://another.rodeo/artisanal-web/

In the mood for a mind-twisting yet heart warming (at least to me) short story? May I recommend The Egg by Andy Weir? Recommended to me by my 30-year-old kid. She's got great taste. https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

(She also introduced me to Becky Chambers. She's a huge fan. Like I said, great taste.)

Listening to the Senate debate on the War Powers vote in the background while doing some routine work. This is, of course, a mistake. But hearing Republicans argue that the Constitution gives the power of war to the President (it doesn't) and talk about the need to bring down religious fanatics while supporting protesters is ... something. Still trying to figure out if they genuinely don't see the hypocrisy? Or think we are too stupid to see it? So confusing.

@joeltosi@mastodon.social and I are continuing our Maven experiments. Next up:

The Eternal Staffing Questions: How Many People? How Many Teams?
Fri, Jul 10, 2026 10-11am Pacific
https://maven.com/p/acc592/eternal-staffing-questions-how-many-people-how-many-teams

We'll talk about the mythical man-month and U-curves... and if all goes well we'll get to demonstrate the concepts using the simulation we've been working on.

It's free. Join us?

Happy April Fool's day, internet!

As part of writing Signals & Levers, @joeltosi@mastodon.social and I did a bunch of world building for the story that runs through the book. Our fictional company, Limitless Systems, is a SaaS Platform company in the same universe as Parts Unlimited from The Phoenix Project and the Unicorn Project. (What does the platform do? It platforms.)

We even built a website for the company

Today seems a good day to unveil it.

https://golimitless.systems/

So... Anthropic is refusing to back down on a couple pretty basic guardrails in their negotiations with the US: no mass surveillance, no autonomous killing. See: https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war

Yet the US Dept of War is threatening them because of course they are.

In response, Google and OpenAI employees released a letter standing with Anthropic. https://notdivided.org/

Seems like a good thing to me. Thanks to all who signed. If you're a past or present Google / OpenAI employee you can still sign.

Read in the news that some republicans are pushing to ram DHS funding through the senate citing the war as the reason. !@#$%ing opportunistic ghouls.

So I began my week by contacting my representatives to voice my support for a war powers vote to rein in this administration, my opposition to the war, and my opposition to caving on our ICE demands. Feels insufficient but it's something.

If you're in the US, I urge you to do the same. Lots to be done and we can't let up on any of it.

@joeltosi@mastodon.social & I are in the final stges of copy editing Signals & Levers. We need help. There's a fictional component to the book. A character, Mark, runs Ops & carries around a mug. Currently it says "Your lack of planning is not my emergency." A reviewer said we need a new slogan. Please help us decide by voting for your fav from our ideas or commenting with your own. We need to decide soon so please boost for reach. (If we pick yours we'll find an appropriate way to thank you / credit you.)

Someone recommended Suarez's Daemon to me. I tried. I really did. Got a third of the way in and gave up.The treatment of women was absolutely appalling, and I'm not just talking about the obviously reprehensible stuff. Asked ChatGPT for spoilers and I am so glad I'm not going to waste more time on this. Can't think of when a work of fiction has made me this sad and angry. I prefer to celebrate good stuff & don't usually post about stuff I don't like, but this is just so awful.

The US Bureau of Land Management has a proposal to open lands in Chaco Canyon around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, revoking a 2023 order. 😡

These lands should be protected, but this administration doesn't care about the historic or cultural significance.

The proposal is open for just 2 weeks of public comment:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=D949F582-402D-F111-8341-001DD804183B

I just left a comment strongly opposing this move. If you're outraged, please add your voice. Let's flood their inbox in opposition.