Reposts from 11 December 2023

I'm open to being wrong, but for my money, "identify as"/"identifies as" is almost always a useless phrase. "She identifies as a woman" => "She is a woman." "They identify as Catholic." => "They are Catholic." And so forth. The only utility I can see is to distance the act of identification from actual belonging (as in the classic journalistic twist, "Name Lastname, who identifies as non-binary, [proceeds to misgender them]"), or to discuss the fallibility of survey results ("well, 50% of the cohort identified as sanitation workers, but it's possibly because you said 'garbage people' instead"). In my opinion, it's just not a phrase you should use, unless you can articulate why a simple "is" or "are" doesn't work.

For a long time I had trouble with the concept of unionizing programmers, because it felt like we're already so privileged compared to blue-collar workers. What I realize now is that all that privilege vanishes like a mirage the moment people start talking about unionization. Or the moment interest rates go up.

Attached: 1 image Newsflash: Workers have never been motivated by making money for shareholders. This is what motivates CEOs and senior executives.

You know what they say: Mostly words, usually in sentences

I think about this quote from @andy@bell.bz a lot: ‘P.S if you think “no one will want to read my posts”, you’re wrong, because I do.’ It’s just a sweet sentiment. It’s important to remember—someone will read your website. A tweet is dead on the vine. No one is gonna read your old Facebook note from years ago. But your website is timeless and someone will eventually read it. Making your own website is rewarding in a way that a corporate social media profile never will be. https://andy-bell.co.uk/just-post/