The root of “weird” is fate, destiny, witchcraft, the supernatural or unearthly or magical—think of the “weird sisters” who foretell Macbeth’s undoing, or the Greek Fates. The “weird” are usually feminine. To twist the word around and use it to refer to behavior and speech that is explicitly misogynist strikes me as like stabbing someone with the hilt of a knife—it’s your hand that bleeds.

At the risk of sounding insufferable, I will share that for some time now I’ve had a practice of turning off my devices (phone, laptop) on Saturday evenings and not turning them back on until Monday morning—after I’ve spent some time writing and moving my body. And it’s maybe one of the most restorative practices I’ve ever built.

I can’t find the page now, but there’s a moment in Menewood when Hild’s people look to her, expecting her to say she will be king, and she returns that look with something like, “No, no, all kings die! All kings are killed by men who are or want to be kings!” https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/menewood

If you must write up your organization’s values, you should do it in the form of a fable not a bulleted list.

Too much of our technology tries to get us to forget that we are bodies. I’m convinced that that forgetting does real damage to our spirits and intellects. We have to claw back spaces where we can be whole.

Semi-regular reminder that most of your video calls could be (probably ought to be) phone calls. No AI listening in but also you don’t have to be still, or at your desk, or forced into the 2D space that video calls demand of you. You can talk to people in other places and still be a body.