Sam Liebeskind

a great prototype is worth 100 meetings.

Instead of telling people what I think of a proposal, a product, a feature, whatever, I ask them instead what they think. Were they thrilled with it? Absolutely love it? Most of the time I would hear, “It's okay,” or “It's not bad.” They would surmise from my facial expression that this wasn't the answer I was looking for. Come back when you are... See more

The digital sphere is artificially built and those who operate it get to set its rules in ways that are enforced in code, which is to say that are enforced as the laws of the system itself. That is how structural power is established. Many parts of the digital landscape are presented on the surface as consumer goods (social, search) or as markets... See more

This might suggest that decentralization itself is not actually of immediate practical or pressing importance to the majority of people downstream, that the only amount of decentralization people want is the minimum amount required for something to exist, and that if not very consciously accounted for, these forces will push us further from rather... See more

🧠 The puzzle of vanishing member dues - Part 2

Not all conflict is bad. Disagreement — over taxes, education, or policy — is essential to a healthy democracy. But affective polarization isn’t about differing ideas. It’s about identity.

It emerges when people begin to dislike, distrust, or even dehumanize others because of who they are — their ethnicity, region, religion, political affiliation,... See more