Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LightNews

bryan (they/them)

@chaosgreml.in

1.7K followers 1.8K following 6.4K posts

IDs: queer, agender, fat, Black, AuDHD Building systems that make the right thing the easy thing.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · Jun 29

Things you don’t know about me:

1. My BFA is in Musical Theatre
2. I used to perform professionally and was an Equity actor. I stopped because NYC was impossible to be young, poor, 6’5”, and Black in if you were doing theatre.
3. I podcast! Pretty regularly! All the time!

(Cont)

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 12h

I really think that my entire philosophy can be boiled down to this:

Make the right thing the easy thing.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 12h

So often we shoot ourselves in the foot in tech by yelling at people, “But this harder way is better! You should do it because it’s better and more ethical!”

Doing good should not be hard. That’s a choice our society has made. Doing good should be effortless and deeply rewarding.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 12h

This is a great concept, *and* it only works at scale if we make the right option also the easiest option.

Most people *do not* have the resources, be it time, energy, or money, to do the hard thing simply because it’s right.

They’re just trying to survive a system that sees them as disposable.

Reposted by bryan (they/them)

Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 14h

All I can add to the “we reject universal masking” discourse is that it’s not about masks. You aren’t rejecting universal masking, which never happened; you’re rejecting having to think about wearing a mask, and maybe feeling badly about thinking about masks. Can’t help you there.

Reposted by bryan (they/them)

Dr. Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 2d

When the academics start saying the answer is we should never trust preprints but you're an interdisciplinary applied scholar so all your papers get rejected because they're with real world populations or get wildly biased reviews from hostile applied reviewers who don't know methods

a cartoon of ralph from the simpsons sits in an orange seat

Alt: a cartoon of ralph from the simpsons sits in an orange seat. Text reads chuckles, I'm in danger

media.tenor.com

Reposted by bryan (they/them)

at://work @atwork.place · 2d

Get started and learn more here: atwork.place/help/endorse...

at://work @atwork.place · 2d

Professional recommendations have a trust problem. Anyone can write a glowing review and claim someone else said it. How do you know it's real? We built endorsements on at://work using ATProtocol's cryptographic infrastructure.

Reposted by bryan (they/them)

at://work @atwork.place · 2d

Professional recommendations have a trust problem. Anyone can write a glowing review and claim someone else said it. How do you know it's real? We built endorsements on at://work using ATProtocol's cryptographic infrastructure.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 2d

Because there are laws that make it illegal to release names of hov’t employees do so if the intent is to “harm, intimidate, or obstruct,” and ICE agents have add’l legal protections against their names being released, strengthened in 2020.

More info here: www.rcfp.org/resources/im...

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 2d

I ain’t never like that white singing lady anyway

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

Please feel free to share these far & wide! I'm going to collect them & then turn them into a report back that I'm personally going to use to try & craft some thoughts around how we make quality interactions with each other easier and&more fulfilling vs shitty & awful interactions.

Thanks so much!

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

I'd *also* love to hear from all of you what you believe makes up *low-grade, terrible, trashy, awful* interaction on platforms like this. Can be anything - you can use examples, you can describe it, etc. If you can do that in response to *this skeet* that would be AMAZING!

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

I'd *love* to hear from all of you what you believe makes up *quality* interaction on platforms like this. Can be anything - you can use examples, you can describe it, etc. If you can do that in response to *this skeet* that would be AMAZING!

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

COMMUNITY CALL FOR FEEDBACK:

Hello creatures of the ATmosphere! I'm doing a lot of thinking about what healthy prosocial networked interaction incentives look like - how we keep conversations on large social experiences like Bluesky/atproto rooted in an ethic of shared humanity even when tough.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

if you're a true Hitchhiker's Guide fan, we're probably gonna get along fine.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

It's something I'd be excited to help folks with - my background in performance and theatre, along with the marketing work i've had to do at many an organization i've worked at has given me the ability to paint pretty convincing visions, as long as I'm paired with an effective operator

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

One thing I'd like to see folks in ATproto dev get better at doing is communicating our visions for the future in ways that capture the user imagination, more than the developer imagination.

This means video, audio, demos, and more. Give people something to get excited about. Paint them a picture!

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

I think we need both: people yearn for changes that "feel" measurably different.

You can make progress refactoring 60% of your codebase, but if the user doesn't feel a difference, what you did wasn't enough to move the needle for them.

I think this may be what you're getting at.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

that said, imagination is a thing that has powered human civilization for generations.

hope for the better is the only thing that keeps us sane most times.

and what are hope and imagination but arguments about the state of the future?

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

yes, very true. I think that is something we all know - you cannot truly "convince" someone that something they have not experienced is better than something they have.

they will always have doubt.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

I don't think you're wrong, I just think it's a little funny that you think your argument isn't sociological at its core.

everything in the world is basically "does this thing make me feel better" or "does this thing make me feel worse" and sometimes "does this thing simply leave me at stasis"

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

"lighthearted competitive landscape" is a phrase laden with social meaning!

and the whole statement presupposes that competition and lightheartedness, combined, will move people from their current perspectives. In other words, how these processes (seamless interop) will shape human behavior!

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

"no technical or sociological argument is as convincing as seeing seamless interop and the lighthearted competitive landscape it unlocks"

Dan this is a sociological argument

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

So it doesn’t matter to you if he spotlights individuals fighting authoritarianism? It’s not a video that’s about him. He’s showcasing the work of others.

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

Is this video not also part of his legacy? And what does the rest of his legacy, as you claim, have to do with the video Anil posted?

bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 3d

Sarah. None of that has anything to do with the value of this conversation that Anil posted.