Hilary Mason

A screenshot of an article in The Canberra Times with the title "How sitting down to write her memoir led to a debut novel" by Paula McClean with the first sentence "Paula McClean's debut novel, The One Remaining, is the fictitious memoir of a fictitious novelist named Hilary Mason." The last line is fading to unreadable white, as I have not paid for access to the full article.

Oh Paula, I would like a word.

It's Spooky Season, and if you relish exploring mysterious gothic horror in modern-day Amsterdam, you can now play Dracula on hiddendoor.co

A printed sign taped to a door with blue tape that says "X, DO NOT USE"

Good advice, random door.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned John C Wright's The Golden Age series, since the central theme of it is about the idea of identity in a society of originals, fragments, and sub-process consciousness: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gol...

The first book was published in 2002.

I've recommended this book before, now is the time to go order it!

I put in an order, and I really hope it goes as well as possible for you and that you recover easily and without stress. 🤗

YouTube video by Obama Foundation How to stop authoritarianism across the globe: a conversation with President Obama

This one is worth amplifying, because it's @barackobama.bsky.social using his platform to do exactly what we want him to be doing: @obamafoundation.bsky.social alumni who have been doing the work of fighting authoritarianism globally share what they've learned. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRNa...

These are very good words.

“I fucking love tropes.” - @scalzi.com

Strong start to NYCC with this incredible panel on SciFi tropes with @cjfarley.bsky.social, Emery Robin, Yume Kitasei, @scalzi.com and moderated by @juliesnyder.bsky.social

How to Not Capitulate for Dummies A framework for weighing decisions under Trump.

I had my first run-in with Trump 2.0 complicity days after the 2024 election.

Since then we've seen more examples from media, universities, law firms & many others.

Does what the little guys do matter? Yes, more than ever.

wiczipedia.substack.com/p/how-to-not...

YES!!

A pile of paper street posters in bright pink and orange that say WHERE FANFIC MEETS ROLEPLAY in a handwritten font. The bottom has a bunch of tearaways that are each a different trope. There's a hand and a scissor cutting them up.

Sometimes being a founder means staying up too late doing arts and crafts.

We'll be at #NYCC tomorrow with an exciting launch, come find us (or at least find our QR code to skip the waitlist)!

A long table lined with redacted documents

Close-up of redacted documents, showing that the redactions are moveable black strips and blobs

A stack of printed Du Bois FBI files that visitors can take with them

😍 Ann Messner's "Du Bois: The FBI Files" at the "In Our Time: Eleven Artists + W.E.B. Du Bois" show @ Pratt Manhattan Gallery — making redaction tangible!

(Also in the show: Derrick Adams, Radcliffe Bailey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Theaster Gates, Mickalene Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, et at)

LOL, you are definitely not the kind of leader I'm talking about here!

I'm trying to understand how otherwise intelligent people can make such poor leadership decisions.

...and is it just a few, or is it the majority of folks?

Back in 2014-2018, it was IBM, Palantir et al bullshit hype but there was a way from hype excitement to strategy to outcomes.

Do you have specific examples you can share? DMs welcome!

I'm really trying to understand the dynamics that are leading to otherwise intelligent people losing the thread of good leadership.

Ahh yes, that lack of role clarity and expectations has been a huge problem.

I do wonder if it’s getting better, as the AI energy sucks up a lot of the magical thinking.

I appreciate the comment. I have a good sense of the 2014-2018 ML moment (I built a whole business in the sales wake of IBM’s Watson bullshit!) and I’m trying to figure out why it’s so especially difficult right now. I see the through line.

quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric

I'm not going to 'like' that, but I'm sorry!

How many folks have actually experienced a CEO or manager pressuring them to use AI in a way that's dumb or out of touch?

WHAT THE FUCK

“Now we have no more cookies to eat,” said Toad sadly. “Not even one.”

“Yes,” said Frog, “but we have lots and lots of will power.”

“You may keep it all, Frog,” said Toad. “I am going home now to bake a cake.”

So what's so great about reading books? If you pay attention to the news at all, you may have seen a host of alarming headlines recently about how the number of Americans who say they read for pleasure has declined sharply over the past 20 ...

What does it mean to "read for pleasure", and what does it mean that that's declining?

I appreciate Mathew Ingram's pretty balanced take in his newsletter: torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/so-whats-so-...

...and I expect that amidst all of the noise, we are finding new places and ways to read.

🤗

EVERYONE has an AI book. It's so tiring.

A photo of a toilet, above it is a shelf with extra toilet paper and an inexplicable VHS tape

A zoomed in view of the tape

Okay bluesky please help me solve the mystery of why there is a blank VHS tape in this Tokyo subway station bathroom!

(Also if this message was meant for me, please try again, I accept USB keys, parchment scrawls, graffiti, Signal, I prefer to be in a comedy or spy movie no horror plz)

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Amazing, congratulations!! He's so adorable.

He had me at “the Playskool version of Twitter”and at many more illustrations of sociopathy reduced to declawed swipes by neutered menchildren. How @davidjroth.bsky.social writes lifts one from an assaulting depression of nationality & unbelonging