Love this concept of “prophetic reframing”: the “rhetorical re-description of possible civic worlds, as in the speeches of Dr. King.” https://sarahendren.com/2024/06/14/the-how-and-the-why-part-2/
While a great many workplaces subject us to burnout and exploitation and abuse, our desire to do good work—work that contributes to our collective thriving—is also innate, and powerful, and too important to give up without a fight. https://everythingchanges.us/blog/all-on-the-table/
“I think we should be done with nostalgia. To totally refuse nostalgia altogether.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/who-we-wish-to-become
Have learned that if you turn an iPhone off but leave it plugged in, it will invariably turn itself back on. Now imagining some kind of Byron-the-bulb conspiracy to resurrect every device connected to the grid, Byron blinking ecstatically about not leaving anyone behind.
Thinking with Adam Greenfield’s excellent LIFEHOUSE about the desire for stability, and how it’s often a proxy for nostalgia and grief: https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/nostalgia-and-grief
Great interview with Georgina Voss about “world-fleshing,” a phrase I am definitely going to steal: https://www.worldbuilding.agency/interviews/world-fleshing-an-interview-with-georgina-voss-part-1/
Our teams may not be democracies, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t benefit from the same (sadly, neglected) skills that make democracy great: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/good-collaboration/
AI “is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning. It reduces the amount of intention in the world.” https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/why-ai-isnt-going-to-make-art
Rovelli’s THE ORDER OF TIME is a lovely book to think with time and change and how it is we come to know ourselves: https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/order-of-time
The persistent and infuriating talk of how women should be mothers (and how women who aren’t mothers aren’t even women) should be understood as economic policy. Jenny Brown’s BIRTH STRIKE continues to be required reading: https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/birth-strike
Big decisions can take time to reach every part of you, as if they started in your head or your heart but need time to spread themselves all the way down to your toes. https://everythingchanges.us/blog/big-decisions-take-time/
“It feels like the best reason to get online anymore is to somehow increase the odds that I’ll be able to meet someone offline, which is where most of the good stuff happens anyway. We need to be able to find each other.” https://fjord.style/reorientation
Need a word for the grief that comes with finishing a novel and not wanting to leave the world behind. (This time brought about by a reread of Rosemary Kirstein’s excellent STEERSWOMAN books: https://aworkinglibrary.com/series/steerswoman-series/)
Nina Allan’s CONQUEST asks how to love someone across a reality as fractured, divergent, and broken as this one. https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/conquest
Depressing but accurate take on the race to the bottom being played between OpenAI and publishers. Copyright evidently only protects the rich. https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/30/24230975/openai-publisher-deals-web-search
“We are now leaping headfirst into a future in which reality is simply less knowable.” https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/22/24225972/ai-photo-era-what-is-reality-google-pixel-9
“machine learning…is a massive loophole in the tech equivalent of the social contract—a reprieve from the duty of care. Let the models make themselves! Generative AI in particular feels like an explicit attack on our ability to synthesize and communicate ideas.” https://fjord.style/where-im-at
Something I oft talk about with my clients: the worst burnout I experienced wasn’t the result of overwork but of being underutilized and feeling useless. We have to get specific about burnout if we’re going to address it: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/digging-through-the-ashes/
Chewing on something about the difference between willpower and discipline: willpower is the exhaustible—and frequently exhausted—skill of negotiating choices; discipline is committing to a path and rejecting the bargain.
Smart analysis from Kate Manne here about how, by bypassing the usual primary process, Kamala hasn’t been hit by the likability/competency gap that women usually face. https://katemanne.substack.com/p/why-harris-will-win