I still believe the single greatest failure we will look back on from this pandemic is we have not helped the public truly understand how many people have died.
The way people are behaving makes it very clear that they have not connected with the amount of death that is surrounding us. This is something that motivates Americans. When we tell a story about how Americans are dying, it usually galvanizes people. We didn’t do that.
I believe a big factor that we haven't acknowledged is that people die and their family do not attribute it to covid. There may be lots of good reasons for that. But I think some part of it is shame. Overall, this has been an extremely private pandemic.
Right. Instead of us "coming together", what we got was a narrative that said the people dying are not people we should care about. A narrative that said the people dying deserved it in some way. A narrative that said it's "them" dying and not "us".
This is part of why I say it is our biggest failure. A once in a century global pandemic. An unprecedented opportunity to let go of petty shit and rebuild without losing face. And instead all it did was pull back the curtain on how broken and toxic American culture is right now.

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More from @polotek

1 Nov
I get it. But this is backwards. Most drug crimes are non-violent. And the argument has always been that drugs should not be criminalized to the extent they are. Prosecuting sedition is not about deterrence. It's about making sure people know it's considered wrong.
First of all, I do believe that prosecuting a lot of white people who are participating in this attempted coup would have an effect. White people seeking political power and trying to preserve white supremacy are not the same as people with a drug addiction.
Second. We know there is a huge element of culture and in-grouping at play among Republicans. A lot of people are responding to this because that's what their community is telling them they have to do. If they start seeing people go to jail, that might disrupt the group think.
Read 5 tweets
28 Oct
It's easy to make fun of Facebook's name change. But I think it is going to have the intended effect. They are going from having a highly recognizable and unique name to a generic and forgettable one. It will absolutely help them shed the bad brand around the old name.
This also prepares them for the future inevitability of Facebook the product fading into obsolescence. They can see that on the horizon. As long as the company name is the same as the flagship product, the company's fortunes decline along with that product.
All I'm saying is this is a very smart strategy and I think some people are missing it. I have to revise my prediction. Facebook the product will be gone or obsolete. But Zuck is already planning to replace it with another addictive chaos machine.
Read 13 tweets
28 Oct
Companies were shitty before the pandemic and they’ll be shitty after the pandemic. But they can’t fix a pandemic. I really didn’t think people would have such a hard time with that truth. I also said “we created a society where work is all there is”. People still walked into it.
People said “leadership should do a better job!” I said cool, you know that means we need better people need to agree to be leaders. Y’all said “no that job sucks, I don’t know why anybody would do it”. Hence leadership is populated by sociopaths.
I said “okay well maybe we can work together to make the leadership job less sucky for people”. Y’all said “lol, no. Fuck bosses!”
Read 6 tweets
27 Oct
This may be a controversial take. But I don't think people are supposed to be looking to their job for help with this. What we've been through the last two years is not something a company was built to handle. It's just that we've created a society where work is all there is.
I got some important questions about this, and I think it’s worth working a little harder to set context. Burnout is a thing. It was a thing before the pandemic. And I think we are all coming to understand more of the ways that work is the primary driver of burnout.
But my suggestion that employers can’t fix what we’re currently going through is firmly rooted in the pandemic environment we’ve been in for the past 2 years. I’m saying that I believe pandemic burnout is a specific thing that has greatly exacerbated many of these problems.
Read 8 tweets
10 Oct
I'm going to answer this question. It's going to require context. As in not all situations and companies fit this mold. It's also going to require throwing away some deeply held assumptions.
The core context is knowledge work. That's the only context I'm speaking in because that's what I do. When people talk about "tech work" that is a subset of knowledge work. So you can assume most of what I'm talking about applies to tech jobs.
Most of the time, we have this simple notion of how work gets done. If each individual does their one part, then eventually the whole thing will be done. You can do your part without being too worried about whether other people are doing their part.
Read 16 tweets
10 Oct
I have 2 threads about management in my TL right now.

This one.
Being a middle manager feels a lot like making $400K in the "how much money makes you rich" conversation. A bunch of people who have never experienced it telling you how it works and telling you that you have no problems to complain about. It's wild.
Read 5 tweets

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