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this jacobin piece changed my perspective on how i think about work and a career.
it really breaks down the “do what you love” mindset and reframes work as a necessary act instead of something that should give you personal gratification.
would recommend this read to anyone, but especially people who maybe are attracted to academics or who define a lot of their worth in professional success and the idea that they are “doing what you love”!!
Feb 18, 2024
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as someone who works adjacent to higher ed i often think about this. but i also always recall this toni morrison quote:
“I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.”
as someone who wants my career to be rooted in my ethics, i def have a very “be the change you want to see in the world” sort of outlook. it may be a bit corny but it def helps me navigate all these opposing issues alongside my personal beliefs. i think the “no ethical consumption under capitalism” idea is often be used by others to be dismissive of working toward change, but i also think, in your case, this phrase applies.
May 18, 2024
a treatise on the attention economy - checked it out on libby and got through it over the course of a work day, a lot of really interesting social and cultural explorations about how time itself is the final frontier of hypercapitalism and what decommodification of our attention and time should look like
the book starts with a story about the oldest redwood tree in oakland and how the only reason it’s still standing is bc it’s unmillable, and how being uncommercializable is essential to our survival. it ends with an exploration of alt social media platforms (mostly p2p ones) and what keeping the good parts of the social internet and rejecting the bad ones should look like
all in all a super valuable read; my only nitpick with the book is that odell isn’t just charting the attention economy but also attempting to “solve” it and relate it back to broader concepts about labor and social organizing, but her background is in the arts which leads to some really wonderful references to drive the points home while also missing some critical racial + socioeconomic analyses that one would expect (or at least really appreciate) from the book she promises to deliver in the introduction. but this does also make the book easier to read which is good because everyone should definitely engage with what she has to say
will definitely be revisiting
Mar 25, 2024
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this book has galvanized me to change something about my lifestyle/outlook in a way no book has in a loooong time. if you’ve ever wondered what a solution to the climate crisis could look like that doesn’t rely on the state enforcing top-down solutions at the cost of individual liberties, doesn’t rely on capitalist corporations selling you technology to profit from crisis and that causes exploitation in the foreign countries where its raw materials are extracted from, doesn’t divert responsibility onto individuals by insisting it’s your fault for not using metal straws, and doesn’t bank on wishful thinking that AI will provide a lifestyle of luxury for all, but that instead emphasizes reprioritizing connection to community and communal self governance, meaningful labor and a sustainable work life balance, the human right to their environment, and an economic shift towards prioritizing practical use over scarcity-based profiteering, then this book is for you. we will have to stop growing our global economy though, but it’s actually going to be better that way.
May 30, 2024
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im still going!
Mar 22, 2024
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i keep finding myself feeling embarrassed when i post a lot on this app, but im having fun!!! and the genuineness of humans in this weird little online community is filling such a void in me that began to stop believing that people really are Good and Kind.
in other words, i’m grateful for everyone here and i’m going to keep flooding this silly little app with my silly little words
Feb 20, 2024
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this does sound like spring 2022!
Mar 21, 2024