Short Reframings

the best narratives and metaphors for thinking about how life works come not from our technologies (machines, computers) but from life itself.

when we use athletic and energy language to discuss our work’s efficiency, we are drawing upon a specific and exploitive lineage in the history of energy physics and its impact on the western cultural imagination.

So much of what we see out in public is the visible imprint of a group chat, which acts as both the connective tissue that holds it all together and the nervous system that animates it.

creative expression is often used as a gateway to something more practical, and is rarely accepted as something practical in itself .

This is why parents will rush to place their kids on long waitlists for art and music programs, but won’t encourage them to become artists or musicians as they age. It’s as if creative expression is useful for its abi... See more

Culture is to humans a bit like water is to fish; it is everywhere and yet imperceptible because it is not so much what we perceive but what we perceive through . Culture is what brings the world into focus, and it can be thought of as the lens through which objects are seen, not the object as such. In this sense, looking for culture is like lookin... See more

So much of our training as women tells us that we are objects of desire rather than desiring subjects. We know this. . . . As girls we were often expected to please others, and as women we fear being called selfish. We put others’ needs first, we stifle our own desires, or, worse, we forget we even have them. I’m talking here about sexual desires, ... See more

B

ut how

, specifically, can you understand the subjective workings of another person’s mind? Well, you don’t want to peer

at

them; you want to engage

with

them. Looking at a person is different from looking at a thing because a person is looking back at you. I’m getting to know you at the same time you’re getting to know me. To truly see someone els... See more