Cyd Harrell
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cydharrell.bsky.social
Cyd Harrell
@cydharrell.bsky.social
4.3K followers 1.7K following 2K posts
cyberpunk is a warning, not a manual

she/her. dayjob & usual location: City & County of San Francisco (this is a personal account)

ex-18F; on the board @publicgood.tech ; wrote a small book about doing this: https://cydharrell.com/book/
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cydharrell.bsky.social
great post from @kdyz.bsky.social on civil service hiring in NYC - we have similar issues in SF, although I think they're overall a little less rough, but a lot of work to do for tech hires in particular
screenshot from the post: "In addition, improving how city services are delivered in a technological age requires people who can build and maintain modern technology. Almost every service requires digital content, web forms, data management, digital tools and more, but there are no titles for “user researcher”, “data scientist”, “content designer”, “UX designer”, “product manager” or a myriad of other common tech roles in the system. Recent job posts for these roles have been in civil service titles including “Graphic Designer”, “Computer Specialist (Software)”, “IT Project Specialist”, “Research Projects Coordinator”, “Community Coordinator”, “City Research Scientist” and more."
November 14, 2025 at 3:33 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
in!
a receipt for donating $420 for an insulated dog house to Straw For Dogs, note from #UglyDogs
November 7, 2025 at 4:39 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
me: why are my eyes itchy?
PurpleAir:
screenshot of the map of San Francisco on PurpleAir, with nearly all values over 100, in the orange to red range (ie, quite bad air quality)
October 18, 2025 at 6:23 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
yeah, once more with a cover photo - I really, really encourage all tech folks to read this
cover of the report linked: a light green-grey eagle silhouette on a darker background with 5 yellow stars and the text: United States Senate Committee On Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Ranking Member Gary Peters Unchecked and Unaccountable How DOGE Jeopardizes Americans' Data Without Regard for Law and Congress HSGAC Minority Staff Report September 2025
October 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
holy shit, One Medical required me to not only self attest I have a risk condition but sign a special consent form *with a witness line* to get a COVID shot, in California where it’s supposed to be available to all
COVID shot consent form attesting that I am not being coerced into getting it, requiring not only my name, birthdate, & signature, but a witness’s signature
October 2, 2025 at 3:54 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
sometimes I think about bringing back my old website...
screenshot of Cyd's old poetry website, showing a poem page with a white background Header: Cyd Harrell (poet) in large green underlined Courier font poem (all in Courier) Mt. Constitution: From the Summit Some morning when mist is thin like pale tea, you will reach a forest where moss is so shrill a silver green and the blue of spruce limbs vibrates so loud and low that, as quiet steeps you in the damp your soul dissolves, finds mine suspended there; looking down, I read it in the leaves. footer (in sans serif italics): Cyd Harrell, 1989. Published Oxygen Quarterly No. 19. Further rights reserved. Home Email me.
October 1, 2025 at 3:13 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
made it just under the wire - I'll always remember Orange Sky Day for itself, but also as the day the first copies of A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide arrived at my house - 5 years!!
Cyd with long pandemic hair, smiling like crazy & hold two copies of her book A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide, front cover out - the front cover depicts an abstract mashup of a distress flag and a climbing wall that also evokes a computer system diagram, in predominantly orange and blue
September 10, 2025 at 5:38 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
this slide is in so many of my talks (& it doesn't even include the function piece)
screenshot of a presentation slide with white on blue text: 50 states + 5 territories 3,144 counties 19,354 cities & towns 574 tribes & I don’t even know how many water districts, air quality boards, regional transit bodies, etc.
September 4, 2025 at 3:44 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
honestly, I feel like frequent flyer perks started all of this
Screenshot from the article linked in the post above: "When you are at a Disney park, you will inevitably hear “When You Wish Upon a Star,” Disney’s unofficial anthem. Disney adopted that song in the 1940s; its second line, “makes no difference who you are,” encapsulated its egalitarian ethos. Now the song reads to me like nostalgic, middle-class cosplay that helps us relive the Disney that Walt created. The roughly $90 to get your family cut-the-line access to a premier ride (on top of what, for a family of four, could easily be over $700 dropped on tickets) is the real Disney, the one the market created."
August 31, 2025 at 8:44 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
I've got no brief either for or against Burning Man - I've never been & my friends seemed to enjoy it more before tech adopted it - but these people's midlife crises are gonna arrive early & really be *something* sfstandard.com/2025/08/30/b...
Gupta, who has become a poster child of AI boom’s grindcore culture, summarized the current mood among young tech workers in San Francisco as incompatible with the Burner sensibility: “The current vibe is no drinking, no drugs, 996 [work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week], lift heavy, run far, marry early, track sleep, eat steak and eggs.”
August 30, 2025 at 4:27 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
💯 who remembers sponge painting?
a 90s bathroom sponge-painted in a hideous hot pink, with a scrolled light fixture above a mirror with a heavy white wood frame; above the toilet roll is a picture of a tree with a hot pink background that matches the sponge painting & a magenta frame.
August 30, 2025 at 3:47 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
new late-stage capitalist risk-shift just dropped! apparently we can all pay extra for "order insurance" when we have something shipped from a merchant, since neither they nor the delivery service will stand behind it getting there
screenshot of an email: Hi Cyd, I am contacting you regarding the missing order (redacted). I want to inform you that your case has been looked into, and a replacement was approved as a one-time courtesy. For me to send you the replacement, can you please confirm the best shipping address? Also, please keep in mind that since this replacement is a one-time courtesy, we would recommend you purchase route for any future orders. Route is an order insurance that covers lost, stolen, and damaged packages. Looking forward to your reply.
August 28, 2025 at 2:47 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
hey Californians, if you got a mailer (already!) against the fall special election to counter Texas gerrymandering, the League of Women Voters wants you to know that the mailer was lying about them - screenshotting with alt text here:
screenshot of the League of Women Voters of California's post: Important Announcement You may have received a mailer from "Protect Voters First" about the redistricting ballot initiative this November. By naming our organization and quoting Gloria Chun Hoo, the mailer wrongly implies that the League of Women Voters of California is part of their coalition and endorses the information contained in the flyer. This implication is not correct - we are not part of htat coalition. The League of Women Voters of California did not authorize this action.
August 24, 2025 at 5:29 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
You've been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who's coming to save you?

(hahaha, should be fine)
the cast of The Dropout's Game Changer being extremely goofy on the game's very colorful set
August 22, 2025 at 3:35 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
you know, I have a ton of versions of this slide & talktrack in decks about government & technology over the years. not showing up to assist in a disaster is a breach of a very fundamental contract
screenshot of a white-on-blue conference slide & its talk track in the notes slide: What do we ask from government? - Public safety - Infrastructure - Regulations - Record-keeping - Dispute resolution - Assistance Talk track: If you break down the things that government does, they fall in a few basic categories of collective need. A town of 10,000 people does many of the same categories of work as a city of 2 million. Run through...and there are many disagreements about the details, but almost everyone believes that there is some kind of misfortune that can befall you, where the government should help you out.
July 12, 2025 at 1:26 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
um. I don't quite know how to say this, because whoa, wacky idea here...but like, I want an *actual* description of the food I'm ordering to pick up? not "typically" or "often" - wtf?? what are people with restrictions supposed to do here?
screenshot from a Doordash item description for a mini burrito: "Scrambled eggs, cheese, and a selection of breakfast meats, typically wrapped in a smaller tortilla, often accompanied by salsa." tagline in bold: "Description generated by DoorDash using AI"
July 6, 2025 at 5:47 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
this from Texas expert @mattlanza.bsky.social is excellent - key point:
screenshot from the article in the quoted post: "Did budget cuts play a role? No. In this particular case, we have seen absolutely nothing to suggest that current staffing or budget issues within NOAA and the NWS played any role at all in this event. Anyone using this event to claim that is being dishonest. There are many places you can go with expressing thoughts on the current and proposed cuts. We've been very vocal about them here. But this is not the right event for those takes. In fact, weather balloon launches played a vital role in forecast messaging on Thursday night as the event was beginning to unfold. If you want to go that route, use this event as a symbol of the value NOAA and NWS bring to society, understanding that as horrific as this is, yes, it could always have been even worse."
July 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
#NoKings in SF - sunshine & solidarity
Cyd & Mr Cyd in Dolores Park with a flag Gathering crowd at Dolores Park On the march, lots of flags & a prominent sign that says If Harris had won we’d all be at brunch The plaza at SF city hall, jam-packed with marchers
June 14, 2025 at 10:13 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
you have been kidnapped and a character from the last tv show you watched is trying to rescue you who is coming to save you
Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp on The Residence
June 12, 2025 at 4:34 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
cyberpunk is a warning, not a manual
screenshot from the newsletter: "The reality is that Christopher Pelkey's voice was silenced forever when he was killed. What spoke in that courtroom wasn't him — it was a digital creation speaking words he never said. And no matter how well his sister knew him, no matter how pure her intentions, that distinction matters."
May 8, 2025 at 3:13 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
A film that takes place where you're from (in both time & space, lol)
Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon, & Chris Cornell in Singles (1992)
April 17, 2025 at 7:21 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
grim, beautiful essay that puts it all together in a way that resonates, at least for me - check it out!
screenshot from the article in the quoted post: "An unspeakably dismal choice is being made before our eyes and without our consent: machines over humans, inanimate over animate, profits over all else. With stunning speed, the big tech megalomaniacs have quietly rolled back their net-zero pledges and lined up by Trump’s side, hellbent on sacrificing this world’s real and precious resources and creativity at the altar of a vampiric, virtual realm. This is the last great heist, and they are getting ready to ride out the storms they themselves are summoning – and they will try to defame and destroy anyone who gets in their way." screenshot from the article in the quoted post: "To have a hope of combating the end times fascists, with their ever-constricting and asphyxiating concentric circles of “ordered love”, we will need to build an unruly open-hearted movement of the Earth-loving faithful: faithful to this planet, its people, its creatures and to the possibility of a livable future for us all. Faithful to here. Or, to quote Anohni again, this time referring to the goddess in which she now places her faith: “Have you stopped to consider that this might have been her best idea?”"
April 13, 2025 at 5:50 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
sharing the one table from my book, which outlines *very shallowly* the US's 4 levels (federal, state, county, city or town) & 3 branches (executive, legislative, judiciary) of government & what they each do - they are separate but interdependent & interconnected by data
table from A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide Chapter 1 (rows 1-3, see next image for row 4) Federal Executive The President Cabinet agencies and independent agencies • Collect federal income taxes • Oversee immigration and passports • Fund major benefits programs; administer Social Security • Oversee veterans’ services • Make regulations • Manage national Parks Federal Legislative Senate House of Representatives • Pass laws (which supersede and constrain state laws) • Oversee the federal budget, including setting income and business tax rates Federal Judiciary Supreme Court • decides appeals from other federal courts or state supreme courts Federal district and appeals courts • deal with federal crimes, immigration, bankruptcy State Executive Governor State cabinet agencies • Voter registration • Driver and vehicle licensing • State income taxes • Business registration • Professional licensing • State Parks • Fishing and hunting licenses • Highway patrol State Legislative One or two-house state legislature • Pass laws (if these contradict federal law that can generate a Supreme Court case) • Administer state budget • Set state income and/or sales taxes State Judiciary State supreme court State courts of appeals • Some states have separate lower courts for family law County Executive County executive • Sheriffs • Birth, death, and marriage records • Administration of state programs • Election administration (mostly) • Transit and roads • Parks County Legislative County Council or Board of Supervisors • County budget • Local statutes concerning land use, property matters, and alcohol sales (for example) County Judiciary Superior courts (technically part of state court systems) • Most felonies must be tried in superior court • Many family law matters and minor lawsuits are handled here table from A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide, Chapter 1 (row 4 - see previous image for rows 1-3) City or Town Executive Mayor, sometimes sharing power with an appointed City Manager • Local police • Building permitting • Parking and traffic • Parks • Schools (usually with a separate elected board) • Libraries City or Town Legislative City Council • City budget • Local ordinances • Local property and sales taxes City or Town Judiciary Municipal courts (but not everywhere) • Misdemeanor offenses and infractions like traffic tickets
April 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
cydharrell.bsky.social
The week was a lot! Nutmeg is proud of us all getting through it
A brown tabby cat stretched out on a window perch, in a pose of enervation with her paws at full length in front of her sleeping face The same brown tabby on the same window perch, alert & looking pleased
March 29, 2025 at 2:25 AM
cydharrell.bsky.social
me in the national security group chat
screenshot of Meryl Streep in adaptation, playing Susan Orlean, who is high and on the phone trying to get her conversation partner to hum in the right harmonics to make a dial tone. she is lying on a buff blanket staring at her toes, which are up in the air
March 25, 2025 at 2:01 AM