participation
Making is political
Making things yourself can be a political act. Does doing it yourself offer a meaningful opportunity to challenge hegemonic political structures? It depends on how you see the politics of consumption.
ginger coons
values
Friday bonus: Homemade things
If I can, I will build it, cook it, grow it, or mend it. Why do these things matter? There are a lot of answers to that question, but the main ones have to do with feeling a sense of agency in a world that encourages dependence.
technology
On inevitability in technical systems
It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that certain choices, tools, or systems are inevitable and can't be changed. This doesn't need to be the case, and shouldn't be.
Coping 10: Community
Coping is short posts on Fridays about coping methods for doing creative and focused things in an unfocused world. In Coping 10, doing things with other people.
AI
AI and the terminology land grab
We’re in the middle of a terminology land grab: words are being co-opted and freighted with new meaning. While "AI" can mean a lot of things, it now typically means “whatever helps us sell our product.” I explain why pushing back on the land grab is politically important.
bookpile
"Book"pile 10: The Cult of efficiency
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, I'm listening to, rather than reading, Janice Gross Stein's The Cult of Efficiency.
work
Food, capital, and work
Super-charged capitalism creates an environment where individuals feel the need to cram more day into their day. We still need to live, but time pressure presses down on our ability to do it without help. Enter solutions like the meal replacement drink.
bookpile
Bookpile 9: How to argue with a racist
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, How to Argue with a Racist, by Adam Rutherford.
ecosystems
Feels like home
The feeling of being at home is precious. Finding places and situations where it's possible to relax and trust that we have space to build things, space to make mistakes, and space to be ourselves is essential in a world going through a perpetual polycrisis.
creativity
Friday bonus: The Compost heap
For most of my working life, a habit in my writing practice has been to keep a document where I can store sentences and ideas that need to be taken out of the main text. It's like Limbo, but for writing. For years, I called it a graveyard, but I now call it a compost heap. This is why.
definitions
Categories
I like doing the boring work, and the work that underlies the shiny things. Often, what’s needed but not top-of-mind is the ability to understand and critique the underlying structures we seldom think to challenge. In that spirit, I want to talk about categories.
values
Friday bonus: Thoughts on pigeons and plurality
It's easy to forget the plurality of opinions that exist on even small topics. Thinking about the role of pigeons in cities has helped remind me that differing opinions exist even in the smallest nuances.