#mandy-brown — Public Fediverse posts

@aworkinglibrary

"There’s an attitude here that I think can be expanded to any work in which observation, noticing, witnessing what is before us is privileged over trying to make it into something else. There is a fundamental humility to working in this way, to acknowledging that our understanding of the world around us is always incomplete. This is an incompleteness without judgment: not incomplete as inferior or flawed but incomplete as open-ended, infinite, wondrous."

A powerful, beautiful analysis of a key aspect of writing, thinking, generally the creative process. Eye-opening!

#dreams #thinking #creativity #writing #undersense #TheUnPinDownable #MandyBrown

@aworkinglibrary

What a tour de force. An enlightening essay, making important connections between the current AI craze and long-standing traditions of "intelligence" ideology, racism, class systems. Much to think about. I will need time to digest. Bookmarked for repeat reading!

#noAI #StopTheAICorruption #MandyBrown

'“Work” must lose its centrality in the minds, thoughts, and imaginations of everyone. We must learn to see it differently: no longer as something we have—or do not have—but as what we do.'
~ André Gorz cited by @aworkinglibrary there: https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/exit-strategy

'The assertion that slop-makers will replace most jobs is a pathetic attempt at resurrection: only work that has been demeaned into the grave could be supplanted by such boring and obsequious ghosts. The real work has always been elsewhere. Perhaps it’s time we follow where it takes us and leave the dead to their tombs.'
~ Mandy Brown

#exitStrategy #exit #pivot #beliefs #burnOut #hope #ecology #ecologism #politicalEcology #degrowth #quotes #quote #MandyBrown #AISlop #genAI #generativeAI #book #career

"All communication is lossy", 2022, by Mandy Brown: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/all-communication-is-lossy/ 🧵

#communication #conversation #facilitation #collectives #attention #teamWork #conversations #feedback #joy #creativity #MandyBrown

"Grief needs space and attention. Refusing to grieve is like wrapping a wound too tight—it can’t heal without light and air. We need to acknowledge it, to listen to what it’s telling us, to be patient with it. To accept it.
"The same is true for fear."

Mandy Brown wrote: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/take-care/

#quotes #acceptance #selfCare #purpose #hope #anxiety #mentalHealth #positive #choices #MandyBrown #TrumpWin #TrumpPresident #PresidentTrump #results #grief #fear #personalSafety

Misunderstanding why

Exasperated, the therapist finally suggests that she could stop writing. “Stop?” says the writer, blinking in surprise.

~ Mandy Brown, from A battle with the gods

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The challenge is to realize that the error I’m making is in thinking the writing part sucks. Of course it’s not easy— that’s what makes it fun. (Is the lesson I need to continue to work to internalize.)

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#7ForSunday #MandyBrown #OnWriting

Use what you've got; change the course: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/change-the-course/

#agency #change #empowerment #struggle #workCollectives #collectives #community #teamWork #workPlace #dei #womeninTech #corporateLife #MandyBrown

Publishing while maintaining perspective

This is perhaps the greatest conundrum of our current technological era: the desperate need to connect with one another, because it is our only hope of survival; combined with the fact that nearly all the means of connection available to us are deeply—possibly irredeemably—fucked. Syndication, as I am currently experimenting with it, is then an effort to try and navigate that terrain, to find some productive way to play in the outskirts, to let the work out into the world while (hopefully) minimizing the misery that is reflected back.

~ Mandy Brown, from A peasant woodland

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Yes, to everything from Brown (and not just this particular piece.) Beautiful thoughts therein around why one should “publish own site, syndicate elsewhere (POSSE)”—my methodology since the beginning.

Unfortunately, the Internet went from “publishing your own stuff is difficult”, straight to “it’s easy to publish on platforms other people control.” To this day, it is still quite difficult to get your own domain name and begin publishing in a way that you control your own content. Worse, we went from people discovered and read your stuff (back in the “publishing your own stuff is difficult” era) to the now where no one can find or read your stuff regardless where you publish it (unless you pay money to the platform brunch-lords.)

Fortunately, if you have a little bit of time and a little bit of curiosity, you can still find everything that people are publishing.

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#InternetTech #MandyBrown #PublishingPlatforms #RSS #SocialNetworks

"Accepting that you have some #agency might hurt: you bump up against the systems that constrain your choices; you see more clearly how other people’s choices limit (or expand) your own. But it keeps you connected to that source, that font of energy that is yours and no one else’s. It keeps you hooked up to who you are, and to what you want."
#MandyBrown: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/haves-and-choices/

#quotes #acceptance #relationships #selfCare #purpose #hope #anxiety #mentalHealth #positive #selfStudy #choices

Rebecca Subar writes: "Whether armed or nonviolent, what is the purpose of unilateral nonconsensual action? It is to build #power, not to resolve the demand that the group is #protesting about."

#MandyBrown: "What’s important is that it shifts expectations: […] the desired outcome is a more level playing field—level enough that true #negotiation can take place."
https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/when-to-talk-and-when-to-fight 🧵

#resistance #organisations #activism #management #organizations #struggles #workCollectives #collectives

"In a #consensus decision-making process, the decision and the buy-in land at the same time. Rather than making a decision and then getting everyone on board, you get everyone on board, at which point the decision is clear."

by Mandy Brown: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/consenting-to-decisions/

#deciding #decisions #decisionMaking #innovation #management #workCulture #quotes #teamWork #MandyBrown #facilitation #leadership #change #consent #resolution #transparency #dialogue

Before giving feedback, welcome curiosity and find joy in asking questions and listening.

"What you see"
https://everythingchanges.us/blog/what-you-see/ by Mandy Brown

#collectives #attention #conversations #teams #teamWork #management #health #microManagement #psychologicalSafety #personalSafety #safety #workPlace #workCulture #mentalHealth #feedback #joy #curiosity #MandyBrown

Move at the speed of trust

One of the principles I come back to over and over is adrienne maree brown’s invitation to move at the speed of trust. That is, whenever attempting any effort with other people, prioritize building trust and respect for each other over and above any other goal. The trust forms the foundation from which the work can grow.

~ Mandy Brown from, Move at the speed of trust | A Working Library

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I bump against this in podcasting often: How do I get to the “good” part of this conversation as quickly as possible? And I sometimes focus on the “quickly” part, when in reality the best way is to focus on the trust part. The “good” part of the conversation just falls out after that.

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#MandyBrown

Here are a few notes to prepare an interview:
On choosing work type: https://techhub.social/@estelle/111212400002381944
On toxic environments: https://social.coop/@eric/112349848072746974
On attention: https://social.coop/@eric/112349926405469590
"Good conversations have lots of doorknobs" https://www.experimental-history.com/p/good-conversations-have-lots-of-doorknobs
On estime: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/useful-praise/
On trust: https://hachyderm.io/@joannalaine/112271076456190200

#interviews #interview #jobs #candidating #work #attention #selfEstime #trust #colleagues #workCulture #MandyBrown #conversations #feedback

We create the decision

The following is a very short blog post. The idea that struck me is that how true it is (!) that we create the decision. Each decision (the root of the word, but also clearly what happens when we decide) represents our choosing to cut off—to amputate—some thing or things as we create new or renewed focus on some other thing.

This is especially true of the most difficult decisions—the ones where you are taking a risk and simply can’t predict the many ways in which it will play out. A useful perspective for the anxiety-ridden late night hours those decisions tend to inspire.

~ Mandy Brown from, Making decisions

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Truly, I’ve only had to make a handful of actual decisions. And they were really stressful. Right up until the moment when I actually, finally, made a decision. I can’t recall a single time where the post-decision stress or worry was anything at all like the pre-decision stress or worry. It’s almost as if I am the one creating all the stress and worry within myself.

And to be clear: That’s snark. Obviously, I’m the once creating the stress and worry. How about you? Anything you should be deciding so you can relax and move forward?

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#7ForSunday #MandyBrown

Obliged to respond

I recently heard a conversation between Brian Koppelman and Steven Pressfield (circa 2019 in Koppelman’s podcast, The Moment) where Pressfield mentioned a few great things for creatives to remember: Being a professional has nothing to do with getting paid. Resistance is real, it’s myself, and is waiting for me to invite it to stop me. The Muse is real.

The muse really does reward me for being found working. I’ve learned, no matter the work, the muse approves when finding me ready with pen and paper close. But if the muse taps me and I fail to treat the gift appropriately—if I think, “I’ll remember that. I don’t need to write that down.”—then I hear the muse scoff, “we shall see.” We shall see if I remember. And we shall see if the muse waits a bit longer before checking on me again.

That, of course, was the reason for the pen all along: it’s a physical reminder that you are not reading merely to consume the words of others passively, but that you have an obligation to respond.

~ Mandy Brown from, Ways of writing

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I’m realizing that books themselves also need room to sprawl. If I keep them shelved upright, or even more simply stacked flat, they still seem to be squished into submission. When I am able to lay a few of them out, with some room for them to wave their invisible tendrils, they seem to taunt me: go ahead, pick me up! If there’s a tablet or some writing scraps at hand, or garish sticky notes for flagging pages, then it begins to feel like its own room with unfolding conversations. In the end, it’s almost a composition just having the books lying about.

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#7ForSunday #BeingProfessional #Books #MandyBrown

What’s in your way?

I’m fond of saying that the first 90 percent of something is vastly easier than the second 90 percent. There’s so much wisdom packed into that, and it’s funny—if you know how to tell a joke. Gee Willikers! I’m almost done! When in fact, I’ve only just scratched the surface.

In practice, this means you need to limit distractions to the full extent possible. Pull quotes, so effective near the top of an article, become a nuisance further down; many readers will find themselves unconsciously drawn to them, even when they want to focus on the text. Attention to the basic typographic details, line length, a readable typeface, the right balance between font size and line height, appropriate contrast between the text and background, can make the difference between a reader who makes it to the end of the article versus one who tires and gives up.

~ Mandy Brown from, In defense of readers

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I can say, without exaggeration, that I’ve tortured myself over every single tiny detail of what you are looking at. That includes the fact that 7 for Sunday looks slightly different in email. (It looks great in email; but what you see isn’t quite as controllable as a web site.) It would probably be good enough if I hadn’t tortured myself about the details, even though I think craftsmanship matters.

But of course readers matter most.

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#7ForSunday #MandyBrown #Reading

Reading must occur every day, but it is not just any daily reading that will do. The day’s reading must include at minimum a few lines whose principal intent is to be beautiful—words composed as much for the sake of their composition as for the meaning they convey.

~ Mandy Brown

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https://constantine.name/2023/10/17/reading/

#Quotes #Reading #7ForSunday #MandyBrown

Always read with a pen handy. The pen should be used both to mark the text you want to remember and to write from where the text leaves you. Think of the text as the starting point for your own words.

~ Mandy Brown

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https://constantine.name/2023/10/06/the-starting-point/

#Quotes #OnWriting #Reading #MandyBrown

"If at the moment you are haphazardly and unknowingly optimizing for only one mode of thinking, you are also unknowingly optimizing for confusion and misunderstanding and second-guessing.

Because the efficiency of communication isn‘t solely a measure of the time it takes to move information from one head to another; it‘s also the time and energy required to build and sustain collective understanding." — #MandyBrown #EverythingChanges
https://everythingchanges.us/blog/writers-and-talkers-and-leaders/

#MandyBrown @aworkinglibrary: "The real problem with the argument that we need offices to support junior staff isn’t about those junior staff at all. […] Let’s engage with office culture as it really is, not how we imagine it used to be."
⸺
https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/official-myths #workplace #management #remoteWork

> “One of the questions I always ask of stories is how they *work*. Who do they serve? Who benefits? Who, if anyone, is burdened or harmed by them? Who is uplifted? What modes or methods or structures do they employ?”

#MandyBrown’s latest missive at #AWorkingLibrary tackles the way we look and think about #AI.
***Must Read***

https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/smoke-screen

"You don’t get good stuff without a system that takes care of the humans... the humans need human things to make the stuff." — #MandyBrown

Word.

https://everythingchanges.us/blog/made-it/

This is me! This is effin me!

> “I only need a half hour a day to write. But I have to wait around an awful long time for that half hour to show up.”

From #MandyBrown’s Tolerance for boredom
https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/tolerance-for-boredom

#Boredom #Writing