Good news and musings around a rapidly changing self
Placement aside, I both laugh and shake (a bit) about how often I think about the future. That of this newsletter, of my role at my current job, of the communities I weave and rumble with—the list goes on. I use my journals, blogs and this newsletter as a way of answering questions I’ve been leaving for myself over time. In conjunction to this, I do my best to pay attention to things I find pressing (world events, local strife and things in-between). That adds more reflection and study on top of all of this hopefully-generative literature I’m building for myself. It slows down the cognitive bias I develop and helps tear down the crusting prejudices I’ve acquired from being steeped in a conservative(-ish) Christian environment1. That isn’t to say that there’s anything specifically wrong with either of those—sometimes you need mental barricades to remind you to not repeatably consume violent material. And there’s a lot to be learned about perspective, interactivity, and society from religious texts. I keep a copy of the Qur’an that I try to read about a month, when I remember. I’ve also recently got a book with poems and meditations from an author I’ve followed for quite some time on Instagram, something I’m eager to start my day with. All of this to increase my sense of security in what comes next. Is it worthwhile? So far, it’s kept me pointing towards a heading that I can understand. I’m not of the ilk that can drift or float when it comes to life. Careless risk is not something I’m terribly with comfortable with, but in the spirit of Butlerian ideologies of the future: change is the guiding constant.
Other Updates
On a lighter note, I should mention the following:
Thanks to many people, I found a job back in February. I had to make a public appeal to help me stay afloat earlier this year, and I can’t thank y’all enough. There’s still quite a few people from Code for America that haven’t found new work yet. I’m hoping you can send funds to the solidarity fund—anything helps. We’ve created a spreadsheet that folks have opted into for job discovery. On top of that, feel free to reply to this e-mail to send over any information on roles for:
Client Success Manager
Principal/Senior/Staff Software Engineers
UX Designers
Qualitative Researchers
HR Recruiters
I’m included in a magazine by Reboot, a community of tech-minded people looking to build a better future as a contributing writer for their fourth volume of Kernel. The cover is very nice! The contribution is my observation as a member of Code for America’s union and the moments that built up to the first contract. It’s not a complete story—more of it can be found on both Code for America’s blog and the union’s blog2. Check it out!
I got to attend Labor Notes this year in Chicago. This conference was one of the most regenerative ones I’ve been to in some time. As you can see below, lots of people were very interested in the movement towards a better future for labor. There’s so much I can say about the event, but this photo captures it best.
Everything’s fun together!
Upcoming
There’s a lot I’m hoping to do this year. Travel, albeit risky in the midst of an unrecognized (by many states) pandemic, is something I’m interested in doing more of. I’m hoping to lug a physical camera with me to take more photos of places—I enjoyed seeing the cityscape of Chicago—so much so I got a not-short book about it when I got back.
I’m glad (and extremely fortunate) to be in a place where I feel more confident about what comes next. And at the same time, it’s brought new questions. What should I optimize my time around? Do I have to? I’ve been reading a lot—books, magazines, newspaper, blog posts—searching for something I can’t yet describe. And I want to share some of these notes. I’m extremely envious of Mandy Brown’s website—a wide range of books and topics they’ve read and written about3. I do think my (eventual) approach will mirror closely to that of Jessamyn’s approach with their list due to its quick listing and searchability. The upside of the Web is that you can do it the way that feels best for you.
I’ve grown both angry (at myself) and tired of my current habits around publishing. If it’s not a quote or note from something I’m reading or a reaction to something I’ve seen on a feed somewhere—it’s then tied to a knee-jerk reaction to something I’ve seen online (almost without fail). Because of that, I’ve removed a lot of apps on my phone—things like Digital Wellness work like a glass door over a pack of cigarettes with no supervision.
That said, I’m returning to what pushed me off-rip. A passion in trying to make a tool that explores what I (and ideally others) can see a collaborative and engaging Web still exists — something I was bold enough to have recorded. I have some different thoughts on approach now that’ve made both the target and mission more difficult to needle towards. I’m also hoping to make more media4 about these and other interweaving topics as a means of both reducing my rate of repetition and sharing what helped shape my perspectives over the last decade.
It’s been a long time since I was hoping that a sign in the street would make waves. And they do. We can’t relent this year, or the next.
Recommendations
I’d like to close this out with some things I’d hope you can check out from your local (or digital) library or elsewhere. It’s the book Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes. The note on the cover by Naomi Klein was not an understatement. At first, I was envious of how easy it (the campaigns mentioned) almost seemed, but part of the trick of the narrative is that we get a glimpse of the events and a sliver of the feelings. I’ll always think of this particular bit from the book, following a quote from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower:
So, how do we make change happen? You, as an individual, are only a tiny pebble in a vast sea. We can personally make ripples, but it takes collective action to make waves. It may be unfashionable or too earnest to say, but the reality is that each of us bringing our pebbles to the lake, and throwing them in is what it takes to make change. I think the image of an endless line of us throwing our pebbles into the lake is beautiful: a necessary act taken together.
Until next time (hopefully it won’t be as long — both in length and time)!
I really yo-yo on calling my experience conservative. Upbringings and the education I got from my parents and my community led to a lot of countering of narratives. My current (and personal) stance leans towards a sense of collective spirituality over heavily organized religion. I have yet to see what shape that takes as I’m routinely afraid of contortions of spirituality by those seeking something darker as highlighted in books like Cultish, another book I’d like to write about. She has a great suite of books, and I’m eager to check out her most recent book — once I have time.
They (Code for America’s management committee—or whoever was in charge of writing on their behalf — it wasn’t always clear) wrote more about the union right up to the contract ratification in response to the workers taking to the digital press. It did feel (at times) that brand management was more important — at one point, they published a blog post with news that we were simultaneously shared at the bargaining table.
When I first visited her site, the styling of it reminds me of A Book Apart; it made me wonder if she was involved. You can find out yourself here, the same way I did.
I finally decided on making a podcast. Which, from now, I’ll be referring to a netcast because language matters, and we need to start peeling back corporatism from our shared language. Where do you think the term came from?