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“ChatGPT knows me pretty well… but it drew me as a white man with a man bun.” – Angie Jones on AI Bias, DevRel, and Block’s new open source AI agent “goose”
Angie Jones is a veteran innovator, educator, and inventor with over twenty years of industry experience and twenty-seven digital technology patents both domestically and internationally. As the VP of Developer Relations at Block, she facilitates developer training and enablement, delivering tools for developer users and open source contributors. However, her educational work doesn’t end with her day job. She is also a contributor to multiple books examining the intersection of technology and career, including *DevOps: Implementing Cultural Change*, and *97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know*, and is an active speaker in the global developer conference circuit. With the release of Block’s new open source AI agent “goose”, Angie drives conversations around AI’s role in developer productivity, ethical practices, and the application of intelligent tooling. We had the chance to talk with her about the evolution of DevRel, what makes a great leader, emergent data governance practices, women who are crushing it right now in the industry, and more: Developer Advocacy is Mainstream A decade ago, Developer Relations (DevRel) wasn’t the established field it is today. It was often called Developer Evangelism, and fewer companies saw the value in having engineers speak directly to other engineers. > “Developer Relations was more of a niche space. It’s become much more mainstream these days with pretty much every developer-focused company realizing that the best way to reach developers is with their peers.” That shift has opened up more opportunities for engineers who enjoy teaching, community-building, and breaking down complex technical concepts. But because DevRel straddles multiple functions, its place within an organization remains up for debate—should it sit within Engineering, Product, Marketing, or even its own department? There’s no single answer, but its cross-functional nature makes it a crucial bridge between technical teams and the developers they serve. Leadership Is Not an Extension of Engineering Excellence Most engineers assume that excelling as an IC is enough to prepare them for leadership, but Angie warns that this is a common misconception. She’s seen firsthand how technical skills don’t always equate to strong leadership abilities—we’ve all worked under leaders who made us wonder *how they got there*. When she was promoted into leadership, Angie was determined not to become one of those leaders: > “This required humility. Acknowledging that while I was an expert in one area, I was a novice in another.” Instead of assuming leadership would come naturally, she took a deliberate approach to learning—taking courses, reading books, and working with executive coaches to build leadership skills the right way. Goose: An Open Source AI Assistant That Works for You At Block, Angie is working on a tool called goose, an open-source AI agent that runs locally on your machine. Unlike many AI assistants that are locked into specific platforms, goose is designed to be fully customizable: > “You can use your LLM of choice and integrate it with any API through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).” That flexibility means goose can be tailored to fit developers’ workflows. Angie gives an example of what this looks like in action: > “Goose, take this Figma file and build out all of the components for it. Check them into a new GitHub repo called @org/design-components and send a message to the #design channel in Slack informing them of the changes.” And just like that, it’s done— no manual intervention required. The Future of Data Governance As AI adoption accelerates, data governance has become a top priority for companies. Strong governance requires clear policies, security measures, and accountability. Angie points out that organizations are already making moves in this space: > “Cisco recently launched a product called AI Defense to help organizations enhance their data governance frameworks and ensure that AI deployments align with established data policies and compliance requirements.” According to Angie, in the next five years, we can expect more structured frameworks around AI data usage, especially as businesses navigate privacy concerns and regulatory compliance. Bias in AI Career Tools: Helping or Hurting? AI-powered resume screeners and promotion predictors are becoming more common in hiring, but are they helping or hurting underrepresented groups? Angie’s own experience with AI bias was eye-opening: > “I use ChatGPT every day. It knows me pretty well. I asked it to draw a picture of what it thinks my current life looks like, and it drew me as a white male (with a man bun).” When she called it out, the AI responded: > “No, I don’t picture you that way at all, but it sounds like the illustration might’ve leaned into the tech stereotype aesthetic a little too much.” This illustrates a bigger problem— AI often reflects human biases at scale. However, there are emerging solutions, such as identity masking, which removes names, race, and gender markers so that only skills are evaluated. > “In scenarios like this, minorities are given a fairer shot.” It’s a step toward a more equitable hiring process, but it also surfaces the need for constant vigilance in AI development to prevent harmful biases. Women at the Forefront of AI Innovation While AI is reshaping nearly every industry, women are playing a leading role in its development. Angie highlights several technologists: > “I’m so proud to see women are already at the forefront of AI innovation. I see amazing women leading AI research, training, and development such as Mira Murati, Timnit Gebru, Joelle Pineau, Meredith Whittaker, and even Block’s own VP of Data & AI, Jackie Brosamer.” These women are influencing not just the technical advancements in AI but also the ethical considerations that come with it. Connect with Angie Angie Jones is an undeniable pillar of the online JavaScript community, and it isn’t hard to connect with her! You can find Angie on X (Twitter), Linkedin, or on her personal site (where you can also access her free Linkedin Courses). Learn more about goose by Block. Sticker Illustration by Jacob Ashley...
Mar 13, 2025
4 mins
“It Sounds a Little Dystopian, But Also Kind of Amazing”: Conversations on Long Term AI Agents and "Winning" Product Hunt with Ellie Zubrowski
Ellie Zubrowski doesn’t walk a traditional path. In the three years since graduating from a university program in Business Administration, she biked across the U.S., studied Kung Fu in China, learned Mandarin just for fun, and completed the #100DaysOfCode challenge after deciding she wanted a career switch. That same sense of curiosity and willingness to jump into the unknown now fuels her work as a Developer Advocate at Pieces, where she leads product launches, mentors job seekers, and helps developers learn how to best leverage Pieces’ Long-Term Memory Agent. Her journey into tech was guided not just by a want to learn how to code and break into the industry, but by a fascination with the structure of language itself. > “There are so many parallels between human languages and programming languages,” she says. “That realization really made me fall in love with software.” > We spoke with Ellie about launching a #1 Product Hunt release, her predictions for AI agents, and why conferences don’t have to break your budget. Launching LTM-2 to the Top of Product Hunt Recently, Ellie led the launch of Pieces’ Long-Term Memory Agent (LTM-2), which took the top spot on Product Hunt—a major win for the team and their community. > “I’m super competitive,” she admits. “So I really wanted us to win.” The launch was fully organic—no paid promotions, just coordinated team efforts, a well-prepared content pipeline, and an ambassador program that brought in authentic engagement across X, Discord, and Reddit. She documented their entire strategy in this blog post, and credits the success not just to good planning but to a passionate developer community that believed in the product. Following a successful performance at Product Hunt, Ellie is committed to keeping Pieces’ user community engaged and contributing to its technological ecosystem. > “Although I’m still fairly new to DevRel (coming up on a year at Pieces!), I think success comes down to a few things: developer adoption and retention, user feedback, community engagement, and maintaining communication with engineering.” Why AI Agents Are the Next Big Thing Ellie sees a major shift on the horizon: AI that doesn’t wait for a prompt. > “The biggest trend of 2025 seems to be AI agents,” she explains, “or AI that acts proactively instead of reactively.” Until now, most of us have had to tell AI exactly what to do—whether that’s drafting emails, debugging code, or generating images. But Ellie imagines a near future where AI tools act more like intelligent teammates than assistants—running locally, deeply personalized, and working in the background to handle the repetitive stuff. > “Imagine something that knows how you work and quietly handles your busy work while you focus on the creative parts,” she says. “It sounds a little dystopian, but also kind of amazing.” Whether we hit that level of autonomy in 2025 or (likely) have to wait until 2026, she believes the move toward agentic AI is inevitable—and it’s changing how developers think about productivity, ownership, and trust. You can read more of Ellie’s 2025 LLM predictions here! The Secret to Free Conferences (and Winning the GitHub Claw Machine) Ellie will be the first to tell you: attending a tech conference can be a total game-changer. “Attending my first tech conference completely changed my career trajectory,” she says. “It honestly changed my life.” And the best part? You might not even need to pay for a ticket. > “Most conferences offer scholarship tickets,” Ellie explains. “And if you’re active in dev communities, there are always giveaways. You just have to know where to look.” In her early days of job hunting, Ellie made it to multiple conferences for free (minus travel and lodging)—which she recommends to anyone trying to break into tech. Also, she lives for conference swag. One of her all-time favorite moments? Winning a GitHub Octocat from the claw machine at RenderATL. > “She’s one of my prized possessions,” Ellie laughs. Proof here. 🐙 Her advice: if you’re even a little curious about going to a conference—go. Show up. Say hi to someone new. You never know what connection might shape your next step. Ellie’s Journeys Away from her Desk Earlier this year, Ellie took a break from product launches and developer events to visit China for Chinese New Year with her boyfriend’s family—and turned the trip into a mix of sightseeing, food adventures, and a personal mission: document every cat she met. (You can follow the full feline thread here 🐱) The trip took them through Beijing, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Yuci, Zhùmǎdiàn, and Yangzhou, where they explored palaces, museums, and even soaked in a hot spring once reserved for emperors. > “Fancy, right?” Ellie jokes. But the real highlight? The food. > “China has some of the best food in the world,” she says. “And lucky for me, my boyfriend’s dad is an amazing cook—every meal felt like a five-star experience.” What’s Next? With a YouTube series on the way, thousands of developers reached through her workshops, and an eye on the next generation of AI tooling, Ellie Zubrowski is loving her experience as a developer advocate. Follow @elliezub on X to stay in the loop on her work, travels, tech experiments, and the occasional Octocat sighting. She’s building in public, cheering on other devs, and always down to share what she’s learning along the way. Learn more about Pieces, the long-term LLM agent. Sticker Illustration by Jacob Ashley...
Mar 28, 2025
4 mins