helping make 🎏 @glitch • board member @eff @girlsclubny @themarkup • over at @anildash@me.dm now • used to be well-known here back when Twitter still mattered
Sep 5, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Hi everybody! Today is my birthday. I am blessed beyond measure and want for nothing, but I’m still going to ask you for 3 things.
1. Thank and recognize the people in your life whom you appreciate, who inspire you. Do it while they’re still here. Do it publicly.
2. Find local organizations that do specific, meaningful work to help those in the most need. Give them your time & resources, and *talk about it* with others. I know folks are supposed to be modest about “charity”, but talking about good works amplifies them & encourages others.
Sep 4, 2018 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This is an absolutely unacceptable doubling-down by the Economist, who are either foolishly getting exploited by providing a platform without any accountability, or are complicit in an awful agenda.
Media is getting played again amplifying this willfully dishonest stunt. Quick quiz: who’s the only presidential candidate to get a full-throated public convention endorsement from a current Facebook board member? nytimes.com/2018/08/28/tec…
There’s obviously no policy truth to these assertions. (for example: there’s no call for increased regulation of social networks within Facebook. The only dissent is those opposing or advancing bigotry.) So why now? To increase pressure alongside Trump’s specious calls of bias.
Jul 22, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Did you know: Prince would often get a library card for any places that he was going to be visiting for more than a few days in a row; library cards for Oakland, Baltimore and other cities were amongst his personal effects at Paisley Park when he passed away.
Still!
In the fall of 1981, Prince was respected (his recent Dirty Mind album had been a critical smash, but had slightly dimmed his rep as an R&B artist, and he’d only had one real pop hit) but wasn’t yet a star. Pretty much everybody agreed he was about to be the Next Big Thing, tho…
So, just before the release of his Controversy album, Prince got the gig of a lifetime: He was invited to open for the Rolling Stones. At LA Memorial Coliseum. Damn near 100,000 people, in a slot almost no young black artist had ever been offered. This could change everything.
May 19, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I’ve tried explaining this story so many times, but Mandeep does it perfectly here. Ride-hailing apps ignoring the law caused countless immigrant families to lose their investment in intergenerational wealth. There’s no accountability or recourse. Whole communities undermined.
External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @mandeepnyc view original on Twitter
To answer the common questions: there’s nothing about enabling innovation in taxi apps that required rewarding VCs funding the breaking of laws. Yes, the medallion system was often broken & sometimes corrupt; replacing that with no laws at all is not going to *improve* that.
May 9, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This stuff is really, really basic, but: any interaction with technology or the products of tech companies must be exist within a context of informed consent. Something like #GoogleDuplex fails this test, _by design_. That's an unfixable flaw.
This is good to hear! But Google should have made consent an explicit part of the demo, then.
External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @backlon view original on Twitter
May 3, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I think in general people are supposed to be discreet about what happens in board meetings, but I want to share a little view into the @StackOverflow board meeting we had today, if you’ll all indulge.
This was a big day for the team; among other major work, Stack Overflow for Teams launched. (It’s an amazing tool! You should check it out: stackoverflow.com/teams ) That’s years in the making, and super valuable. I think it’ll become indispensable in the way that Slack has.
Apr 5, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Though he’s one of the most gifted and important artists to have ever created popular music, Stevie’s legacy as a tireless and fearless advocate for justice may he even *more* powerful. We should heed every word he says.
External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @steviewonder view original on Twitter
I want to share a lesson for casual fans, or younger people who may not know Stevie’s legacy. After a bunch of hits as a teenage sensation, Stevie had a run of albums in the 70s that were the greatest back-to-back releases in pop music history. Commercial and artistic triumphs.
Apr 2, 2018 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Google’s decision to kill Google Reader was a turning point in enabling media to be manipulated by misinformation campaigns. The difference between individuals choosing the feeds they read & companies doing it for you affects all other forms of media.
I didn’t even use Reader that much, but its social model more closely mirrored the old LiveJournal dynamic, which isn’t inherently broken. (FriendFeed got this right, too.) And that made it more resilient to distortion, which matters more in tools used by those who create media.
Mar 19, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
One of the trickiest balances to strike in activism or advocacy is reifying principles within the community vs educating persuadable outsiders about first principles. The latter often takes more patience, and these concerns often are zero sum, since people only have so much time.
On moral issues, my heart dictates that I want to help welcome anyone who is just learning how to advocate for others’ humanity, as I know I have so much to learn yet myself. But at a time when things are so urgent, I still often feel like “What took you so long?” Impatience.
Dec 17, 2017 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Though I think it misrepresents my comments in the introduction, an interesting exercise in what some in Silicon Valley think you “can’t say”: medium.com/@jasoncrawford…
The one that made me LOL was “you can’t be anti-vax!” I mean, the problem is that *can* be. But of course you deserve derision if you’re a shitbag who wants to endanger kids.
Dec 14, 2017 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
So @sama has articulated the way many guys in Silicon Valley feel about "free speech". It's not a very sophisticated or informed view, but it's pretty common and he's influential, so it's worth identifying why it's dangerous and wrong. blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove
First, the rhetoric of some of the most wealthy & powerful people in the history of the world being "unable to say" things is ridiculous. What they mean is, "when I say these things that others find dangerous or harmful, I get mean responses". Which is... actual free speech.
Dec 8, 2017 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Who is a person (not counting family) that opened doors for you in your career when they didn’t have to? Anytime is a good time to show gratitude!
Sometimes just one person can really make a difference in someone's career.
External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @Lin_Manuel view original on Twitter
Nov 21, 2017 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Unlike @AjitPaiFCC, I’ve led teams creating innovative new tech on the Internet. Everyone who’s done so knows that killing net neutrality is bad for society — not just because it harms tech innovation, but because it compromises our civil rights.
And Pai's history on this is clear — long before "fake news" became the tactic for undermining trust & accuracy in the public sphere, he was undermining researchers who were trying to prevent the spread of fake news: washingtonpost.com/opinions/truth…
Nov 14, 2017 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Now that #MeToo is proving effective & widespread, we should anticipate and expect misinformation efforts to use this movement the same way they've exploited every other major social issue. Media & prominent voices need to be mindful while supporting voices that need to be heard.
Mainstream media, in particular, is still woefully unprepared for how trolls will make concerted attempts to undermine credibility of all stories by creating or amplifying distortions in reporting. They desperately want this movement to fail.
Nov 6, 2017 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Nothing happened after Oak Creek. Nothing happened after Charleston. These mass murders are what the right wants. It’s clear as day.
External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @samswey view original on Twitter
Because you can ask them, “Would you invest in accessible counseling for at-risk men with a history of domestic violence?” & they’ll say no.
