# change happens (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover change happens. Page: Feed: --- ## [What Else Should I Read?](https://third-bit.com/2026/08/21/what-else-should-i-read/) _2026-08-21 · The Third Bit_ I would be very grateful for pointers to other recent empirical studies of the impact of AI on programming education that are more rigorous than the gushing slop being tossed around on LinkedIn. I'd be particularly grateful for studies that show negative or neutral results. @article{Abdulla2024, title = {Using ChatGPT in Teaching Computer Programming and Studying its Impact on Students… ## [A Quarto Question (or Six)](https://third-bit.com/2026/08/15/quarto-question/) _2026-08-15 · The Third Bit_ I am converting the notes for “Managing Research Software Projects” from McCole to Quarto. Most of the changes have gone smoothly, but I’m stuck on a few things and would appreciate guidance. For reference, the materials are in this repository and you can view the rendered version here . The landing page shows the contents of index.qmd (which is good) but that page shows up as… ## [First Closure Workshop](https://third-bit.com/2026/08/13/first-closure-workshop/) _2026-08-13 · The Third Bit_ Thanks to a lot of hard work by Liz Neeley , I had a chance to run the project closure workshop online yesterday. I think it went pretty well, and I really enjoyed meeting all the participants, but as the saying goes, no lesson survives first contact with learners. In particular, there’s a lot of duplication, and I think I need to reorganize the material in a 2x2 scheme: Sudden Gradual… ## [LLM Programming Exercises](https://third-bit.com/2026/08/12/llm-programming-exercises/) _2026-08-12 · The Third Bit_ What do you do when teaching programming with LLMs that isn’t in this list? Critically review AI output. Have the LLM answer a programming question or explain a concept, then ask learners to review its response collectively for correctness, clarity, and omissions, testing claims against examples or documentation. Predict, solve, and compare. Have learners predict what code an LLM will… ## [A Survey of Programmers' Beliefs](https://third-bit.com/2026/08/05/programmer-beliefs-survey/) _2026-08-05 · The Third Bit_ Please help if you can: I am working with some students who are studying programmers’ beliefs about software engineering folklore. If you can spare a few minutes to answer the question in https://survey.bth.se/survey/2545 , we would be very grateful. We would also be grateful if you could circulate the survey link to colleagues and friends, since we would like to reach as diverse a… ## [Rainy Day Thoughts on AI](https://third-bit.com/2026/08/04/rainy-day-thoughts-on-ai/) _2026-08-04 · The Third Bit_ A week ago I posted this here, on Mastodon, and on LinkedIn: In his essay on Salvador Dali, Orwell argued that because Dali was a repulsive human being, the right wouldn’t admit that he was a great artist; conversely, because he was a great artist, the left wouldn’t admit he was a repulsive human being. I’m seeing the same thing with AI: because it’s unethical, one side… ## [Orwell, Dali, and AI](https://third-bit.com/2026/07/28/orwell-dali-ai/) _2026-07-28 · The Third Bit_ In his essay on Salvador Dali, Orwell argued that because Dali was a repulsive human being, the right wouldn’t admit that he was a great artist; conversely, because he was a great artist, the left wouldn’t admit he was a repulsive human being. I’m seeing the same thing with AI: because it’s unethical, one side won’t acknowledge that it’s useful, but because… ## [Disasters for Small Teams](https://third-bit.com/2026/07/25/disaster/) _2026-07-21 · The Third Bit_ This post has been moved to a new home . ## [Respect](https://third-bit.com/2026/07/21/respect/) _2026-07-21 · The Third Bit_ Thirty years ago, when I first started writing for Doctor Dobb’s Journal , I decided to do a piece on the object-oriented features that were being added to MATLAB 5. I didn’t know much about them, so I called The MathWorks , told the publicity rep who I was, and asked if they could find me a co-author. A couple of days later I got a call back from a woman who said she had volunteered… ## [Disruptive Behaviors](https://third-bit.com/2026/07/18/disruptive-behaviors/) _2026-07-18 · The Third Bit_ NOAA’s Dealing with Disruptive Behaviors describes ten different kinds of people who can disrupt meetings and gives advice for handling each. I’ve been a big fan of this taxonomy since I first encountered it several years ago, but going through it again yesterday, I realized that there’s a fair bit of overlap between some of the types. In order to slim it down, I grouped them as… ## [Retro Grid Dungeon Crawler (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/n5hMeahXJvCZ) _2026-07-17 · **Sponsored**_ Retro grid movement with first-person combat, loot and skill-tree progression. ## [Recent Reading About LLMs](https://third-bit.com/2026/07/15/recent-reading-about-llms/) _2026-07-15 · The Third Bit_ I’m co-teaching a lesson for the Carpentries next week about the impact of LLMs on teaching. Here are a few things I’ve been reading to prepare: Barba2026 Lorena A. Barba and Laura Stegner: “The Conversational Exam: A Scalable Assessment Design for the AI Era”. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10691 , 2026. Conversational exam (live coding + explanation in small groups) restores… ## [Now What? A Workshop on Error Handling](https://third-bit.com/2026/07/05/now-what/) _2026-07-05 · The Third Bit_ I finally have time to flesh out ideas for lessons that I’ve wanted for years. However, if I can’t find a way to send them back to 2006, there’s no point writing them: very few people read long-form tutorials about software these days. I’d still be interested in comments, though—figuring out what I would teach always helps me learn. Overview Topic : Error handling. Audience… ## [A Modest Proposal](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/29/a-modest-proposal/) _2026-06-29 · The Third Bit_ Would you like to have some real impact on the tech industry? Do you have $100,000 to spend? If you answered “yes” to both questions, ask software engineering researchers (the kinds of people who participated in It Will Never Work in Theory ) to design a study that companies could run internally to measure the impact that genAI adoption by programmers is having on business outcomes.… ## [Three Outlines](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/29/three-outlines/) _2026-06-29 · The Third Bit_ I’m currently making a few last changes to the third book in this series and trying to find an agent who will handle them. If you have middle-graders who would be interested in reading them and giving me feedback, please give me a shout . Maddy Roo Maddy Roo takes place in a world of anthropomorphic animals and patchwork robots. Its protagonist, Maddy, is a 12-year-old kangaroo whose younger… ## [Years Too Late](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/26/years-too-late/) _2026-06-26 · The Third Bit_ I’ve been unemployed for eight months now, and haven’t written as much as I thought I would. Middle-aged angst is one reason, but another is the realization that most of the projects I was thinking of doing are solving yesterday’s problems. I have a long history of doing this: The JavaScript and Python versions of Software Design by Example are the books I needed in the 2000s… ## [AI Happens](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/18/ai-happens/) _2026-06-18 · The Third Bit_ These posts are Version 2 of this material. Please email me with feedback. Sex and Drugs and Guns and Code Restart A Little Psychology How We Got Here More Psychology When the Model is the Harm Privacy, Power, and the Self Who Gets What and Why More Analogies What We Owe the Future Regulation Works How Change Happens AI Happens Bibliography · Glossary · A Note on LLMS A lot of people… ## [How Change Happens](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/17/how-change/) _2026-06-17 · The Third Bit_ These posts are Version 2 of this material. Please email me with feedback. Sex and Drugs and Guns and Code Restart A Little Psychology How We Got Here More Psychology When the Model is the Harm Privacy, Power, and the Self Who Gets What and Why More Analogies What We Owe the Future Regulation Works How Change Happens AI Happens Bibliography · Glossary · A Note on LLMS What Has… ## [Regulation Works](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/16/regulation-works/) _2026-06-16 · The Third Bit_ These posts are Version 2 of this material. Please email me with feedback. Sex and Drugs and Guns and Code Restart A Little Psychology How We Got Here More Psychology When the Model is the Harm Privacy, Power, and the Self Who Gets What and Why More Analogies What We Owe the Future Regulation Works How Change Happens AI Happens Bibliography · Glossary · A Note on LLMS Cognitive… ## [What We Owe the Future](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/15/what-we-owe-the-future/) _2026-06-15 · The Third Bit_ These posts are Version 2 of this material. Please email me with feedback. Sex and Drugs and Guns and Code Restart A Little Psychology How We Got Here More Psychology When the Model is the Harm Privacy, Power, and the Self Who Gets What and Why More Analogies What We Owe the Future Regulation Works How Change Happens AI Happens Bibliography · Glossary · A Note on LLMS In 1987, the… ## [More Analogies](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/14/more-analogies/) _2026-06-14 · The Third Bit_ These posts are Version 2 of this material. Please email me with feedback. Sex and Drugs and Guns and Code Restart A Little Psychology How We Got Here More Psychology When the Model is the Harm Privacy, Power, and the Self Who Gets What and Why More Analogies What We Owe the Future Regulation Works How Change Happens AI Happens Bibliography · Glossary · A Note on LLMS These posts… ## [Find it on Amazon (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/hbr0b07ZoYqJ) _2026-06-13 · **Sponsored**_ Open the Amazon product listing to see details and availability ## [Who Gets What and Why](https://third-bit.com/2026/06/13/who-gets-what-and-why/) _2026-06-13 · The Third Bit_ These posts are Version 2 of this material. Please email me with feedback. Sex and Drugs and Guns and Code Restart A Little Psychology How We Got Here More Psychology When the Model is the Harm Privacy, Power, and the Self Who Gets What and Why More Analogies What We Owe the Future Regulation Works How Change Happens AI Happens Bibliography · Glossary · A Note on LLMS Bueno de…