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Cat Hicks profile picture
Cat Hicks
@Cat Hicks

Psychologist for the humans of tech
Evidence strategy for technical teams

Co-host at Change, Technically: https://www.changetechnically.fyi/

The Psychology of Software Teams (July, 2026): https://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Software-Teams/Hicks/p/book/9781032963389

Seizing the means of scientific production. "Too much psychology for a software engineering audience" - Reviewer 2

She/her
Founded: Catharsis Consulting, Developer Success Lab
Neighborhood Cool Aunt of Science

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[email protected]nip05
Relays (1)
  • wss://relay.ditto.pub – read & write

Recent Notes

Cat Hicks · 1w
The people I know are people deeply involved in the *health* of science itself. STEM equity, access to STEM programs, outreach; Ashley and I have only survived in our own careers by being a part of th...
 Cat Hicks profile picture
Cat Hicks @Cat Hicks
To see my wife and friends go through this and remain brave, remain resilient, and remain committed to working on behalf of others even in the face of great threat, it has changed my standards of what it means for people to be clear on the meaning of their work and brave in the face of opposition.
Cat Hicks · 1w
I have said and will continue to say most people have zero idea what it's like for scientists in the US right now. We sat at an outdoor table the other day with a brilliant older queer scientist frie...
 Cat Hicks profile picture
Cat Hicks @Cat Hicks
The people I know are people deeply involved in the *health* of science itself. STEM equity, access to STEM programs, outreach; Ashley and I have only survived in our own careers by being a part of this community as much as we can. Everyone I know doing STEM education work has constantly accepted less pay to do more, constantly solves crises and constantly helps students. Now so demonized, erased and defunded.
2
Cat Hicks · 1w
To see my wife and friends go through this and remain brave, remain resilient, and remain committed to working on behalf of others even in the face of great threat, it has changed my standards of what it means for people to be clear on the meaning of their work and brave in the face of opposition.
Arthur van der Harg · 1w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq3gsffj5ku57hmy6hjc5rx45mkgwkg8fzferr58pzkm96n3kwxayq2hpa6j It’s heartbreaking. I cannot imagine the entire ecosystem that I spent my career in (not science btw) being annihilated out of spite. Out of hatred for a reality that does not fit one...
Cat Hicks profile picture
I have said and will continue to say most people have zero idea what it's like for scientists in the US right now.

We sat at an outdoor table the other day with a brilliant older queer scientist friend and ran into several scientist friends including one who worked at govt agencies on science funding. It is like having conversations after an apocalypse. So many people lost, labs folded, international postdocs gone, lines of work canned. DEI work going undercover, forbidden words erased
2
Cat Hicks · 1w
The people I know are people deeply involved in the *health* of science itself. STEM equity, access to STEM programs, outreach; Ashley and I have only survived in our own careers by being a part of this community as much as we can. Everyone I know doing STEM education work has constantly accepted le...
Stargeezer Smith · 6d
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq3gsffj5ku57hmy6hjc5rx45mkgwkg8fzferr58pzkm96n3kwxayq2hpa6j Really beyond sad. Even more sad is that GOP legislators are ok with that.
Cat Hicks profile picture
My dad, who is a humanities educator whose passing awareness of tech basically stopped at "I can read email on my phone I guess but why would I even want to," valiantly asks about what I'm working on these days and I truly wish you could hear the conversations we have about software teams it's pretty delightful
Cat Hicks · 1w
Truly unbelievably angry when I see people push that kind of bullshit and try to cover it up with "open source" or whatever tech moral high ground. Speaking as someone who has been the target of longitudinal online harassment several times over, fuck that forever.
Cat Hicks profile picture
I've been interviewing developers every week about their concerns about learning and expertise building. I will not pretend I have all the answers in this time. But I have found these interviews deeply comforting, wonderful and interesting, just like the very first interviews that got me started working with developers.

Contrary to the nihilistic posts I'm seeing everywhere, I believe developers are thoughtful, interested in their learning, care about technology quality, care for each other.
J. Nathan Matias 🦣 · 6w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq3gsffj5ku57hmy6hjc5rx45mkgwkg8fzferr58pzkm96n3kwxayq2hpa6j There are a number of books on this, and we can ask the anthropologists for their top suggestions!
Cat Hicks profile picture
You know what's funny to me is that qualitative methods ALSO kill people all the time (bad eyewitness interviews, horrible case reports re: foreign policy, arguably more bad qualitative stuff is being used in damaging ways than stats ever is) but we don't really see those as methods so we don't blame the methods like we do with stats.
1
Cat Hicks · 9w
Note that I'm not saying we SHOULD blame methods I think it's more helpful to center on decisions to use them, but if someone wrote something like Interviews of Mass Destruction I would eat that up