Tara McMullin

@taramcmullin

Writer, podcaster, and producer baffled by the absurdity of neoliberal capitalism. Autistic feminist. Aspiring independent scholar. Amateur baker. Host of the What Works podcast and author of a book of the same name.

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The Problem with the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom Hierarchy

David Weinberger hbr.org

Making Sense

Whatever conditions people grow up with are the ones they generally consider normal. This is a tribute to the amazing plasticity of the human mind, but it means that we tend to take for granted things that should never be accepted.

resilience.org • The Ideology of Human Supremacy

The Mythical Norm

As I age, the more convinced I am that the concept of “normal” is the most toxic thing in our culture.

Angela Garbes • Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change

The Mythical Norm

The problem when the asset is people is that people are intensely complicated, and trying to regulate how people behave is historically a miserable experience, especially when that authority is vested in a single powerful individual.

theverge.com • Welcome to Hell, Elon - The Verge

content as capital

While being underrepresented is a fixed state that requires coordinated action to remedy systemically, being underrecognized is an ongoing, active state that we can change from moment to moment. Intuitively, it has an agent. That’s what makes this word an actual call to action. It puts the onus on the folks with the power to act, and it makes the... See more

N. Chloé Nwangwu • Why We Should Stop Saying “Underrepresented”

On Empathy

The coping strategies that you adopt will determine how well you handle the stressor.

According to Lazarus and Folkman, there are two aspects to managing a stressful situation:

Problem-based coping: the practical steps that you take to manage the problem.

Emotion-based coping: how you manage your emotions when you become stressed.

MindTools | Home

Emotions @ Work

I think of it as the difference between order and a different kind of order. Because there’s nothing chaotic in diversity. There’s nothing chaotic in a city with many different subcultures all interacting and going about their business. That is an order of its own. It’s just — it looks different from the suburbs.

‘The Ezra Klein Show’ • Opinion | A Legendary World Builder on Multiverses, Revolution and the ‘Souls’ of Cities

Science Fiction

N.K. Jemisin speaking to Ezra Klein about world-building in her 2022 novel

Many of us have oriented our entire lives around an effort to be “normal,” never realizing that “normal” is not a stationary goal. It keeps moving while we dance a perpetual foxtrot, jitterbug, and paso doble around it, trying to catch up and confused when we finish each day exhausted and uninspired by this party called life.

Sonya Renee Taylor • The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

The Mythical Norm

The Creator Economy