Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

Pro tip:
Don't make snow angels in the dog park.

Customer: SENTIMENTAL REASONS
DMV: FUCK YOU

Verdict: DENIED

Hey managers, please don't ask for "mystery meat" conversations with your directs -- i.e., no "hey do you have a minute?" DMs, or surprise calendar invites with vague titles. Always include the topic: "hey, can we talk about client X? I need some information about the meeting last week".

Otherwise, many (most?) of your directs will immediately assume the worst: "hey, do you have a minute ... so I can fire you?" "Hey, can we talk ... about what a failure you are?"

More: https://jacobian.org/2021/oct/26/manager-microscope/

It seems like the majority of medically-recognised #Autistic traits are not autistic traits per se.

They are trauma responses common in autistic people.

I'm "more interested in things than people?" Maybe "things" don't turn hostile on me for unexplained reasons.

I'm dogmatically insistent that nobody can understand my mind but me? Maybe my entire childhood was spent resisting adults telling me they knew my mind better than I did.

This is also why "autistic traits" can seem contradictory. Both "talks about their interests all the time even in inappropriate settings" and "never talks about their interests" can be part of a diagnosis.

Because the latter is a trauma response to having the former shut down.

Is there an untraumatised autistic person?

I actually don't think so. So the map of what autism looks like to clinicians is shaped by our trauma.

And this probably compounds their impression that we're somehow defective, which in turn compounds the attitudes used to break us.

I just wanna be seen as a person.

@joepie91 so true. where the app idea to match for cleaning each others flats and become friends?

Appliances that aren't "smart" is a right-to-repair issue.

One of the biggest reasons why I don't want any appliances to require an app is that it introduces another way to force you into obsolescence and prevent you from repairing your stuff forever.

I'd always rather have an older repairable thing than a new thing I can't fix.

My kid is in a club at school, and they meet 4x a week for 4 hours. So all the parents chip in and stock a "snack cabinet" (granola bars, juice boxes, etc.) because teenagers are hungry goblins.
I went to fill the cabinet and noticed a padlock on it, apparently someone had been "stealing."
I admit, this triggered me.
I spoke to the coach and told him that perhaps he should talk to the kids and find out if one of them is food insecure instead of locking up some two dollar box of granola bars.
The look on his face, I could tell it kinda clicked, he didn't even think of that, just assumed it was some punk kid breaking rules.
People who grow up with wealth don't even realize that it changes the way they think. Luckily, he's a cool guy, and he was horrified that one of 'his kids' might be hungry at home. Sometimes it just takes one comment to open up someone's eyes to their privilege.

As I tell my own children: If you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.

Holy shit, somebody told me about one of the questions they ask when interviewing at a tech company and it’s so good.

“Walk me through the process of expensing a $50 book”

Real talk. Jobs being "good for you" is capitalist propaganda. Organized labor is good. Socialism is good.

We work jobs for shitty employers because we have to in order to eat, and it's a mistake to attribute some kind of moral good to this.

So my husband taught his parents’ dog how to walk their other dog and I thought you needed to know.

(Edit to add - Molly and Winston live out in the country on an acreage so this is a safe way for them to get their exercise without bothering anyone or being bothered 💜)

Hello, friends. Here is a gentle reminder that we are halfway through February and for a lot of people that's when SAD sneaks up and knocks them into depression. Take care of each other and yourself. Keep an eye out for friends in need. Maybe save a life or two.

i don't know why there's an entire holiday about the olivetti valentine but if you had to pick a typewriter to be romantic about, you could do far worse

"Motonormativity":
gets my vote for Urbanist Word of 2023 (aka "Car Brain").

The idea that people think it's normal for cities, and the world, to be designed around automobiles, a transport method that excludes almost one-third of people in most societies.

Based on philosopher David Hume's hoary is/ought fallacy (Just because something "is" like that, people think it "ought" to be like that.)

Thanks to Ian Walker for coming up with a very useful term!

Study here:

https://psyarxiv.com/egnmj

If but one in ten of these devs who, upon discovering Mastodon, immediately set about constructing yet another consent-free crawler, instead put that energy into contributing to Mastodon code, we could have a viable hard fork within a month.

Earlier today, I saw something from ChatGPT go mildly viral, only to notice it had plagiarized some of my papers. It hurt like hell to see all the technical meaning that I had worked so hard to convey with my words reduced to textured English product and regurgitated.

The last thing in the world I want is for that to be integrated with my literal browser.