Jan 21Traffic is a cultureBicyclists: magical beings that can appear from nowhere to “almost get hit.” Years ago, I visited Thailand and learned something about culture. It was a chaotic mess of motorbikes and minibuses and cars, and I was standing by a road trying to figure out how to cross. The traffic was relentless and disorganized. There weren’t any stop signs or stop lights or…Traffic Culture5 min readTraffic Culture5 min read
Dec 16, 2022Elon Musk kicked me off TwitterFree-speech radicalism is, and always has been, bullsh*t. UPDATE: my exile from Twitter was short-lived. Reinstated. Sad, actually. Yesterday, I posted this: Today I got this:Elon Musk2 min readElon Musk2 min read
Nov 22, 2022Reflections on running for local officeFirst of all, it was fun. I don’t really recommend running for elected office if you’re not an extrovert. Because the job is basically meeting and chatting with a lot of people. Like, a lot. If you like meeting and chatting with people, then it’s great. …Election 20228 min readElection 20228 min read
Sep 26, 2022Crawling back to FacebookHi Friends, I’m back. I’m not proud of it, but I’m planning to come back to Facebook. You might not have noticed, but I quit in 2018. I had become increasing infuriated by the company’s behavior, irresponsibility, and gross exploitation of users (us). The violations of privacy, the data breaches, and the coziness with…4 min read4 min read
Aug 7, 2022I’m not really into Sci-fiCan’t remember why, but I decided I should try to read some sci-fi — or I guess they’re calling it “speculative fiction” now. In my youth I read some, and liked it. But haven’t read any in years. So, based on the fawning reviews, I thought I’d read The Three-Body…Three Body Problem5 min readThree Body Problem5 min read
Jul 4, 2022On Effective AltruismI don’t categorically reject effective altruism and I appreciate the added rigor and reflection it has brought to philanthropy and international development. That said, Kate Mann really captures a lot of my unease with EA and I recommend reading her. …Effective Altruism3 min readEffective Altruism3 min read
May 12, 2022Care, ethics, and policyThe personal is political Firstly, the pandemic was a public health crisis. But the pandemic generated many secondary crises and illuminated underlying tensions and contradictions in our society. And the care crisis was a big one. The pandemic tore a hole in society’s care infrastructure. Child care evaporated. Home care…Care8 min readCare8 min read
Mar 30, 2022Can COVID spark a care revolution?This essay was originally published in “What do we do after the pandemic? Ideas for beneficial systems change” by the Wicked Problems Collaborative in 2021. Editing by Chris Oestereich and Jonathan Cohn. What if we started with care? What if we built a world that honored care work as a…Covid 197 min readCovid 197 min read
Jan 30, 2022Grieving a world that never existedDisappointment doesn’t really capture how I feel. I came to this realization reading Leila Billing’s blog on grief in the workplace. Her piece is about the personal losses and grief that pervade workplaces during the pandemic and how these are a factor in staff morale, organizational operation, and an important…Brexit3 min readBrexit3 min read
Jan 2, 2022End of your life book clubI’ll start by saying it’s a good read and I enjoyed it. Which is actually saying a lot about a book that is about a mother’s death and also about their personal book club. Neither sound easy or fun. But Will Schwalbe does make it readable and engaging, not heavy. …Book Review6 min readBook Review6 min read
