making creative tech tools for ages 4-104. apologist for both constance & kevin garnett. imagine a friend said it
Dec 11 • 15 tweets • 2 min read
Something I've heard in orgs from managers is the importance of calibrating communication to the situation and audience. But a core principle of engineering culture is to put aside concerns of audience, context, and etiquette, and be honest. There's a cultural gulf.
As with anything, there are people who go beyond simple frankness and become impolite, rude or intending to make others uncomfortable. That's been an especially big problem in tech when it overlaps with misogyny, sexual harassment, or racism.
Feb 28, 2022 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
In my high school, the fundamental issue around advanced classes was that the student, themselves, had to take initiative to enroll.
There was some bias by guidance counselors and teachers, but most of the inequity came just from who was in the insider grapevine to even know they existed.
Feb 27, 2022 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
This takedown of children's books written by politicians in @thedrift_mag is a perfect example of what you might call the "sneering style" in left politics:
thedriftmag.com/persistence-pa…
Embedded throughout this piece's actual argument are innumerable digs at any and all flaws in the target, whether these are unique to the target or not, whether they matter to the argument, whether they matter at all.
Feb 26, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Look, Putin and his apparatus are dangerous, horrendous autocrats, and Biden and his apparatus are much better. But US foreign policy--and internal power structure--for more than half a century have been specifically, actively opposed to using consistent rules for militarism
This is such a consensus view in DC that there has been general bipartisan support within Congress for decades for waiving the clear Constitutional requirement for Congress to vote before war can be waged
Jun 17, 2019 • 28 tweets • 4 min read
Man, I'm experiencing a very peripheral relationship that I'd call abusive, and WHOAH, I'm realizing so much about dynamics of abuse.
I'm realizing that if someone is focused on achieving control over someone who is (relatively) reasonable and civil, they can deploy so many tools that exploit aspects of the ways we trust others.
Apr 9, 2019 • 21 tweets • 13 min read
Reading this @FranklinFoer piece applauding the Mueller report, I'm stuck again by the bizarre way that journalists are summarizing Mueller's (apparently) not recommending charges against Trump for criminal conspiracy.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…@FranklinFoer This is the same feeling I had with Rosenstein's letter about James Comey, when the mainstream media seemed to spontaneously mount the collective delusion that Rosenstein had recommended Comey be fired, which he did not--and, in fact, seemed to have carefully avoided doing.
Mar 9, 2019 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
This is a very common statist misinterpretation of the "render unto Caesar" episode.
In context, Jesus is being set up by gov't officials trying to nail him for sedition.
But Jesus sees the trap, and says Caesar gets what's Caesar's, God gets what's God's.
Which cleverly leaves open just how much or how little truly belongs to each of them.
Jesus could have just said "obey Caeser" or "obey the government", but he doesn't. That's not his message. His message is that Caesar should be denied everything that isn't rightfully Caesar's.
Dec 10, 2018 • 42 tweets • 7 min read
I think it's worth breaking down this argument, because it's common on the right and I gather they think the only arguments against it are mere impassioned outrage and not cogent.
This argument, in its best version, goes something like: "Listen, I know all people have made contributions, but look at the last 500 years... can you really deny that Europeans/the West/white people have contributed the most to civilization?"
Nov 19, 2018 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
@EconTalker But Russ, it's not only a question of what we expect the market to give us. It's a question of what the market demands. Because the market, in its disinterest and neverending incentives, will not leave the landscape of morality unplundered.
@EconTalker To deny the moral activism of the market would be as myopic as to deny the suppression of human ingenuity & intrepidness under communism.
You can build institutions with no connection to the market. But they will be subsumed by the market unless you fight constantly against it.
Nov 16, 2018 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
@YAppelbaum What I find frustrating about this piece, and others like it, is that it makes so little attempt to distinguish between annoying people by telling people how their actions hurt you, and making people feel threatened and unsafe.
@YAppelbaum Many elected conservatives being opposed, by their own admission, are supporting an extremely unusually dangerous leader who is uniquely bad for the country. Yet constituents coming up to them and pointing out *their own stated position* is unacceptably uncouth?
Sep 2, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Putting Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the White House, and lying to the entire country about your actual opinion of her and how surprised you are at her unfitness, are just by themselves so bad they outweigh the sum total of every good thing McCain ever did in politics.
There is absolutely no question the country would have been at less risk if he had never entered politics at all. And I think that's true even from a conservative perspective.
Sep 2, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This is the moral, intellectual and parenting failure of John McCain in a nutshell
...by which I mean that Megan McCain clearly got the stars-and-stripes-self-promotion-as-superior-to-an-easy-mark thing, and nothing her father or she has experienced would make them pay attention to the push back against "America was always great"
Aug 31, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
It's hard to say how much the Village Voice meant to New York. It covered stories on the ground that no one else would touch. It looked out for renters, police victims, pedestrians and bikers. It warned about the lies and cruelty of Donald Trump 3 decades ago.
This is the most daring, searingly honest, unforgettable cover I've ever seen in publishing. Whether you feel solidarity or fury in response, you absolutely feel something deep & meaningful. @TheAtlantic tries to manufacture this. But in its best moments, the Voice *lived* this.
