Anna E. Cook
@annaecook.com
A personal reflection on focus, autism, and accessibility, what focus has given me in clarity and self-acceptance, and why I’m choosing to keep building better systems, even when clarity is hard to hold, as we head into 2026.
annaecook.com/writing/2025...
annaecook.com/writing/2025...
Focus (2025) — Anna E. Cook
A personal reflection on focus, autism, and accessibility, what focus has given me in clarity and self-acceptance, and why I’m choosing to keep building better systems, even when clarity is hard to ho...
annaecook.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
A personal reflection on focus, autism, and accessibility, what focus has given me in clarity and self-acceptance, and why I’m choosing to keep building better systems, even when clarity is hard to hold, as we head into 2026.
annaecook.com/writing/2025...
annaecook.com/writing/2025...
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
Two victims of previous school shootings — Mia Tretta, who was shot in the stomach in 2019 at Saugus High School, and Zoe Weissman, who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — are now at Brown. Gun violence is out of control in this country.
December 14, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Two victims of previous school shootings — Mia Tretta, who was shot in the stomach in 2019 at Saugus High School, and Zoe Weissman, who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — are now at Brown. Gun violence is out of control in this country.
I'm actually excited writing CSS on a Saturday again, like I used to be.
It feels odd, how I've spent so long doing this and some of the excitement faded given the state of tech work.
But here I am remembering that the web still has the power to be fun and exciting, oddly enough.
It feels odd, how I've spent so long doing this and some of the excitement faded given the state of tech work.
But here I am remembering that the web still has the power to be fun and exciting, oddly enough.
December 13, 2025 at 6:41 PM
I'm actually excited writing CSS on a Saturday again, like I used to be.
It feels odd, how I've spent so long doing this and some of the excitement faded given the state of tech work.
But here I am remembering that the web still has the power to be fun and exciting, oddly enough.
It feels odd, how I've spent so long doing this and some of the excitement faded given the state of tech work.
But here I am remembering that the web still has the power to be fun and exciting, oddly enough.
Just sitting around with friends comparing the variable prices we receive for the same product in the same apps because we live in the land of nightmares
December 13, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Just sitting around with friends comparing the variable prices we receive for the same product in the same apps because we live in the land of nightmares
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
Unfortunately I did not pay for Premium Grandma w/out Ads and had to settle for free Grandma, and she starts every conversation telling me it would be cool if I got a job with ICE.
IN DEPTH | If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
www.independent.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Unfortunately I did not pay for Premium Grandma w/out Ads and had to settle for free Grandma, and she starts every conversation telling me it would be cool if I got a job with ICE.
I'm annoyed because I realized that people are using AI to edit and write code, and that might actually motivate them to stop using divs and/or providing actually distinct classes and IDs, finally.
Because an LLM has no idea wtf div you're referring to if you have 50 divs with no logical structure
Because an LLM has no idea wtf div you're referring to if you have 50 divs with no logical structure
December 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
I'm annoyed because I realized that people are using AI to edit and write code, and that might actually motivate them to stop using divs and/or providing actually distinct classes and IDs, finally.
Because an LLM has no idea wtf div you're referring to if you have 50 divs with no logical structure
Because an LLM has no idea wtf div you're referring to if you have 50 divs with no logical structure
Every year Time picks the worst possible “person of the year.”
Let’s ignore them, and ask ourselves, who is our person of the year?
For me, I think it’s my partner, who is very sweet and also insists on making me a latte every day.
What about you?
Let’s ignore them, and ask ourselves, who is our person of the year?
For me, I think it’s my partner, who is very sweet and also insists on making me a latte every day.
What about you?
December 11, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Every year Time picks the worst possible “person of the year.”
Let’s ignore them, and ask ourselves, who is our person of the year?
For me, I think it’s my partner, who is very sweet and also insists on making me a latte every day.
What about you?
Let’s ignore them, and ask ourselves, who is our person of the year?
For me, I think it’s my partner, who is very sweet and also insists on making me a latte every day.
What about you?
Thinking on people using AI to talk to dead people
I think what bothers me is that the person who died likely put a lifetime of things together to be remembered and appreciated on their own.
Like if I died, I’d rather you read my poems then make any mimick of my person, ya know?
I think what bothers me is that the person who died likely put a lifetime of things together to be remembered and appreciated on their own.
Like if I died, I’d rather you read my poems then make any mimick of my person, ya know?
December 11, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Thinking on people using AI to talk to dead people
I think what bothers me is that the person who died likely put a lifetime of things together to be remembered and appreciated on their own.
Like if I died, I’d rather you read my poems then make any mimick of my person, ya know?
I think what bothers me is that the person who died likely put a lifetime of things together to be remembered and appreciated on their own.
Like if I died, I’d rather you read my poems then make any mimick of my person, ya know?
If any of you do this to me I swear I will go full poltergeist
IN DEPTH | If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
www.independent.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 10:26 PM
If any of you do this to me I swear I will go full poltergeist
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
Fonts are in the news, so I'm going to take the opportunity to port over an old thread: what was typography like in the Soviet Union?
Spoiler: they did not just have 1 font everyone had to use. As a matter of fact, there were 39.
One of them, you can see here, used to great effect for "Chernobyl."
Spoiler: they did not just have 1 font everyone had to use. As a matter of fact, there were 39.
One of them, you can see here, used to great effect for "Chernobyl."
December 10, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Fonts are in the news, so I'm going to take the opportunity to port over an old thread: what was typography like in the Soviet Union?
Spoiler: they did not just have 1 font everyone had to use. As a matter of fact, there were 39.
One of them, you can see here, used to great effect for "Chernobyl."
Spoiler: they did not just have 1 font everyone had to use. As a matter of fact, there were 39.
One of them, you can see here, used to great effect for "Chernobyl."
Fellas is it gay if I use Calibri
December 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Fellas is it gay if I use Calibri
Calibri is just the default font for Word docs lol
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Calibri is just the default font for Word docs lol
This is the cover of the card with some stars and a moon. I’m no great artist but it is filled with love 💙
Each inside will mention a poem by Mary Oliver
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Each inside will mention a poem by Mary Oliver
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
December 10, 2025 at 2:23 AM
This is the cover of the card with some stars and a moon. I’m no great artist but it is filled with love 💙
Each inside will mention a poem by Mary Oliver
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Each inside will mention a poem by Mary Oliver
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
The vibe across tech (and everywhere) in terms of accessibility has felt regressive this year.
Lots of scaling back efforts and great talent getting hit with anti-DEIA related job losses.
It's not easy and it sucks. But I still see most people in tech wanting their work to be accessible.
1/3
Lots of scaling back efforts and great talent getting hit with anti-DEIA related job losses.
It's not easy and it sucks. But I still see most people in tech wanting their work to be accessible.
1/3
December 9, 2025 at 9:40 PM
The vibe across tech (and everywhere) in terms of accessibility has felt regressive this year.
Lots of scaling back efforts and great talent getting hit with anti-DEIA related job losses.
It's not easy and it sucks. But I still see most people in tech wanting their work to be accessible.
1/3
Lots of scaling back efforts and great talent getting hit with anti-DEIA related job losses.
It's not easy and it sucks. But I still see most people in tech wanting their work to be accessible.
1/3
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
Every facet of generative AI has made my professional life worse, without question, but THIS specific aspect has been driving me NUTS.
Clients, who have made me toil for weeks over indescribably small details, are now approving & producing in-house commercial artwork that looks like a fever dream.
Clients, who have made me toil for weeks over indescribably small details, are now approving & producing in-house commercial artwork that looks like a fever dream.
I feel the clients now using GenAI to do stuff and going "good enough" when they used to nitpick at every last detail is due to them finding out all those nit picky changes take time and work they cant be bothered to put in.
December 8, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Every facet of generative AI has made my professional life worse, without question, but THIS specific aspect has been driving me NUTS.
Clients, who have made me toil for weeks over indescribably small details, are now approving & producing in-house commercial artwork that looks like a fever dream.
Clients, who have made me toil for weeks over indescribably small details, are now approving & producing in-house commercial artwork that looks like a fever dream.
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
“Being a disabled token for a morally questionable industry is by no means a step toward disability liberation or true inclusion of any sort, but rather leads us in the other direction." – @ashleyshoo.bsky.social
December 8, 2025 at 5:31 PM
“Being a disabled token for a morally questionable industry is by no means a step toward disability liberation or true inclusion of any sort, but rather leads us in the other direction." – @ashleyshoo.bsky.social
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
Palantir's new neurodivergent fellowship is in fact bad because neurodivergent people participating in technofascism will not save us. Latest for @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The problem with Palantir's new neurodivergent fellowship
Critics have accused the company of being technofascist.
www.motherjones.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Palantir's new neurodivergent fellowship is in fact bad because neurodivergent people participating in technofascism will not save us. Latest for @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Digital products are also dealing with enshittification.
FAANG companies tend to have extreme margins of extracting value, whether that be from your attention or wallet.
Even if the product itself isn’t offering customers anything new of value, they try to make the site/app seem like it does.
FAANG companies tend to have extreme margins of extracting value, whether that be from your attention or wallet.
Even if the product itself isn’t offering customers anything new of value, they try to make the site/app seem like it does.
is there a reason why every single paid streaming service UI has only gotten incredibly worse and less usable over time
December 8, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Digital products are also dealing with enshittification.
FAANG companies tend to have extreme margins of extracting value, whether that be from your attention or wallet.
Even if the product itself isn’t offering customers anything new of value, they try to make the site/app seem like it does.
FAANG companies tend to have extreme margins of extracting value, whether that be from your attention or wallet.
Even if the product itself isn’t offering customers anything new of value, they try to make the site/app seem like it does.
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
WASHINGTON AND OREGON CARTOONISTS: Seattle's bus service is commissioning 6 artists for public art pieces, 2 each, of local stories, 16-32 pages, over 2026, for $54k per artist, to be freely distributed over their ridership.
details here: www.4culture.org/grants/movin...
details here: www.4culture.org/grants/movin...
Moving Stories: Short-Form Graphic Novels for King County Metro Transit RapidRide
King County Metro and 4Culture seek six artists to create short-form graphic novels that illuminate community stories along new and existing RapidRide lines.
www.4culture.org
December 8, 2025 at 1:47 AM
WASHINGTON AND OREGON CARTOONISTS: Seattle's bus service is commissioning 6 artists for public art pieces, 2 each, of local stories, 16-32 pages, over 2026, for $54k per artist, to be freely distributed over their ridership.
details here: www.4culture.org/grants/movin...
details here: www.4culture.org/grants/movin...
I found myself annoyed by the sheer amount of AI holiday cards.
So anyways I’m print making some of my own, here’s the test print
So anyways I’m print making some of my own, here’s the test print
December 7, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I found myself annoyed by the sheer amount of AI holiday cards.
So anyways I’m print making some of my own, here’s the test print
So anyways I’m print making some of my own, here’s the test print
Reposted by Anna E. Cook
"Today’s microwave can cook a frozen burrito. Tomorrow’s microwave will be able to cook an entire Thanksgiving Dinner. Ten years from now a microwave may even be able to run the country."
December 7, 2025 at 5:32 PM
"Today’s microwave can cook a frozen burrito. Tomorrow’s microwave will be able to cook an entire Thanksgiving Dinner. Ten years from now a microwave may even be able to run the country."
Having my partner watch Santa Clause is Coming to Town from 1970 for the first time.
This movie is so terrible I love it
This movie is so terrible I love it
December 7, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Having my partner watch Santa Clause is Coming to Town from 1970 for the first time.
This movie is so terrible I love it
This movie is so terrible I love it