Mary Berk

Now, assumptions is that data will be abused, and there’s no distinction between primary and secondary uses, or a need to distinguish them, and build usage parameters around them. I miss that world. It gave me faith and comfort and the ability to charge ahead, believing my work was responsible.

I relate so much to being in a place with an ethos of care around primary and secondary data uses, and really building a “rules based order” around it. It was so powerful, and gave employees working on things (as well as customers) a level of trust that just isn’t there today.

NPR: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposts video of pastors saying women shouldn't vote

You know how people called women hysterical for predicting the right wing would take down Roe v. Wade (which they've done) and then attack access to birth control (which they're doing)?

Hear me when I say that women's very right to vote is next.

www.npr.org/2025/08/09/n...

I hate the phenomenon of internet hot takes based off of reading a title, but by way of flagging this article to read properly in the future, here’s my own hot take: “you’ll take these cliff notes and you’ll like it; stop asking hard questions.”

📌

The mind body problem never sat right with me. I knew it was a matter of paradigm, but I had no other to offer. This is one that captivates and, I hope, explains.

Your body thinks as much as your mind | Barbara Tversky

Can’t tell you how much I love this.

“Tversky argues thinking is not just something the mind does; it’s something the body is. The movements of our limbs, the gestures we make, even our orientation in space, don’t just support thought—they are its architecture.”

iai.tv/articles/you...

This is the sweetest thing I have seen in a long time... ❤️ #bluesky

Current political dynamics aside, this article is a fascinating study of a concerted effort to bring down violent crime, and how they did it.

I have more pics I can share, but am away from home for a few more days.

It’s one of the most magical experiences of my life.

I also went to visit the home where Hobbes lived with Elizabeth of Shrewsbury, and it resituated so much of my thinking. For example, to see that he lived as a member of the family, and not as a servant, was a big moment.

what he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep it immortal in him

Btw. If you're lucky enough to have a mentor in your life who is willing to dish out honest but tough feedback, cling to them.

Well, keep us posted! I’m happy to try to arrange.

Precisely. I did let him have his fun, though. It was cute.

* close

But that’s a fun Freudian typo

Living the dream!

LMK if you’re back in the BA and want a happy hour. I’ve been looking for an excuse to get some people together.

I’m on vacation next week and will undoubtedly be day drinking, which means we could drink and talk with schedules aligned. Just sitting by a lake.

Used the phrase “day drinking” with one of my British friends and he hasn’t stopped teasing me. “You mean ‘drinking’? How cute.”

And Kavanaugh will definitely be recusing himself due to a closet personal relationship with Meta’s GC, right?

This is excellent. It may feature in my next “detangling AI” talk.

A shrewd observation.

Exactly right.

I’ve been screaming this over at the Bad Place. Don’t take actions that undermine trust in the systems that power a functioning government. We’ll need that trust at election time.

And don’t disenfranchise your voters for short term political gain just b/c someone else is doing it.

I would never deliberately spoil your fun! It is hilarious. Taco service taken as seriously as life and death.

Ok, for fun, plug that into the internet. That pre-fab text is used on dozens of websites, ranging from Redbank Transport to Glaser Solar to a Parkinson’s non-profit to a food testing company.

You wonder what goes through people’s heads.

I have mental maps of you living in the Bay Area and in Ohio, but not in the desert. Where does that come in?

Orange cat staring over a stairwell

Orange cat staring over a stairwell. Close up view.

Orange cat laying on stairs

This is what greets me when I come from the underground garage into the complex. The first thing I’m aware of is a little chirp, then I see that face.

3 views

“His relative's defense attorney…actually authored the bill which was then passed on to Republican state Rep Karianne Lisonbee to sponsor in the Utah House of Representatives. Lisonbee said, after learning who wrote the bill she sponsored and why, that she opposed it. The legislation passed…”

I explored the options and had 2: one guy, who in my interview of him, said he’d break up the team and gut it for parts. (The team was tiny). That guy is now VP Growth. And the other guy, who hated my guts but had some marginal respect for privacy. [My EM and] I picked for the team.

Because this is bringing back all kinds of memories, here’s one more: the reason I landed with Toxic Manager is b/c no one knew what to do with Privacy, and they wanted to move the team somewhere out of sight.

Then Cambridge Analytica and GDPR happened, I got the world’s most toxic manager, and spent a year fighting for my job. I doubt the feature will ever be revived.