mandy brown
@aworkinglibrary.com
Thinking about reading, work, and technology. Helping people do their best work despite the ravages of capitalism at everythingchanges.us.
Posting from https://aworkinglibrary.com/thinking/. I log in about once a week.
Posting from https://aworkinglibrary.com/thinking/. I log in about once a week.
Pinned
mandy brown
@aworkinglibrary.com
· May 30
Toolmen
Even the best weapon is an unhappy tool.
aworkinglibrary.com
I’ve spent the last year reading, thinking, and talking with workers about AI and I’ve concluded that AI is not a technology—it’s an *ideology*, and it must be engaged with as such. https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/toolmen
“Burnout shifted its meaning: from a symptom experienced by people struggling to change society to one experienced by people trying too hard to succeed within it.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/loss-of-an-ideal
Loss of an ideal
From phenomena to pathology.
aworkinglibrary.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:42 PM
“Burnout shifted its meaning: from a symptom experienced by people struggling to change society to one experienced by people trying too hard to succeed within it.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/loss-of-an-ideal
Tyranny all the way down. https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/tyrannies-and-servilities
Tyrannies and servilities
The tyranny of government is the tyranny of the workplace is the tyranny of the home.
aworkinglibrary.com
January 6, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Tyranny all the way down. https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/tyrannies-and-servilities
“Nature seems, very oddly, to have provided us with an inner light by which to judge of the novelist’s integrity or disintegrity.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/what-books-are-for
What books are for
When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
aworkinglibrary.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
“Nature seems, very oddly, to have provided us with an inner light by which to judge of the novelist’s integrity or disintegrity.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/what-books-are-for
“I am asking you to live in the presence of reality, an invigorating life.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/live-at-enmity-with-unreality
Live at enmity with unreality
“What is meant by ‘reality’?” asks Virginia Woolf.
aworkinglibrary.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:20 PM
“I am asking you to live in the presence of reality, an invigorating life.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/live-at-enmity-with-unreality
The winter sf work/shop has now SOLD OUT! What a privilege to gather with an amazing group of people and dream of better days. I'm SO looking forward to it.
I'm planning to offer the work/shop again in the spring, so get on the waitlist to be the first to know when applications open up again.
I'm planning to offer the work/shop again in the spring, so get on the waitlist to be the first to know when applications open up again.
Very much looking forward to this next speculative fiction work/shop—it is so invigorating to spend time in community with people who are unwilling to accept that work is merely what is given to us. We get to make and take our work, too, now as much as ever. everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
speculative fiction work/shop | everything changes
A creative gathering to imagine the future of work.
everythingchanges.us
December 3, 2025 at 5:31 PM
The winter sf work/shop has now SOLD OUT! What a privilege to gather with an amazing group of people and dream of better days. I'm SO looking forward to it.
I'm planning to offer the work/shop again in the spring, so get on the waitlist to be the first to know when applications open up again.
I'm planning to offer the work/shop again in the spring, so get on the waitlist to be the first to know when applications open up again.
“I didn’t enter this field and take this type of job only to *not do the job*.” https://gregg.io/the-only-winning-move
December 2, 2025 at 5:55 PM
“I didn’t enter this field and take this type of job only to *not do the job*.” https://gregg.io/the-only-winning-move
“…do they not prove that education, the finest education in the world, does not teach people to hate force, but to use it?” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/where-there-is-a-wall
Where there is a wall
“Are not force and possessiveness very closely connected with war?”
aworkinglibrary.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:38 PM
“…do they not prove that education, the finest education in the world, does not teach people to hate force, but to use it?” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/where-there-is-a-wall
Last call for the winter sf work/shop! Applications are due by noon EST today.
bsky.app/profile/awor...
bsky.app/profile/awor...
Very much looking forward to this next speculative fiction work/shop—it is so invigorating to spend time in community with people who are unwilling to accept that work is merely what is given to us. We get to make and take our work, too, now as much as ever. everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
speculative fiction work/shop | everything changes
A creative gathering to imagine the future of work.
everythingchanges.us
November 24, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Last call for the winter sf work/shop! Applications are due by noon EST today.
bsky.app/profile/awor...
bsky.app/profile/awor...
“Statements about the future aren’t predictions: they’re more like spells.” https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-line-and-the-stream/
The line and the stream. — ethanmarcotte.com
“Artificial intelligence is the future,” they tell me. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
“Statements about the future aren’t predictions: they’re more like spells.” https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-line-and-the-stream/
Seeing some very fun and sharp applications rolling through for the sf work/shop! So excited to join all of you. Applications are due Monday by noon EST. everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
speculative fiction work/shop | everything changes
A creative gathering to imagine the future of work.
everythingchanges.us
November 20, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Seeing some very fun and sharp applications rolling through for the sf work/shop! So excited to join all of you. Applications are due Monday by noon EST. everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
It’s not enough to turn *away* from screens; we have to turn *towards* something else. https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/thingness
Thingness
A politics of refusal must be more than a closed door.
aworkinglibrary.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:25 PM
It’s not enough to turn *away* from screens; we have to turn *towards* something else. https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/thingness
“The dominant narrative about AI in 2025 isn’t extinction, replacement, transcendence, or even innovation….The dominant narrative about AI in 2025 is inevitability.” https://theantiquarian.email/archive/is-ai-an-apocalypse/
Is AI an apocalypse?
Against technological inevitability
theantiquarian.email
November 18, 2025 at 7:07 PM
“The dominant narrative about AI in 2025 isn’t extinction, replacement, transcendence, or even innovation….The dominant narrative about AI in 2025 is inevitability.” https://theantiquarian.email/archive/is-ai-an-apocalypse/
Thinking about the big ruptures in our work and what it means to notice them, acknowledge the (very reasonable!) fear they inspire—then put one foot in front of the other anyway. https://everythingchanges.us/blog/walking/
Walking | everything changes
Good traveling companions.
everythingchanges.us
November 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Thinking about the big ruptures in our work and what it means to notice them, acknowledge the (very reasonable!) fear they inspire—then put one foot in front of the other anyway. https://everythingchanges.us/blog/walking/
Reposted by mandy brown
Writers, thinkers, people interested in how we might work better together: I'm certain the opportunity to work with Mandy is very much worth your time
Very much looking forward to this next speculative fiction work/shop—it is so invigorating to spend time in community with people who are unwilling to accept that work is merely what is given to us. We get to make and take our work, too, now as much as ever. everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
speculative fiction work/shop | everything changes
A creative gathering to imagine the future of work.
everythingchanges.us
November 17, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Writers, thinkers, people interested in how we might work better together: I'm certain the opportunity to work with Mandy is very much worth your time
Very much looking forward to this next speculative fiction work/shop—it is so invigorating to spend time in community with people who are unwilling to accept that work is merely what is given to us. We get to make and take our work, too, now as much as ever. everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
speculative fiction work/shop | everything changes
A creative gathering to imagine the future of work.
everythingchanges.us
November 17, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Very much looking forward to this next speculative fiction work/shop—it is so invigorating to spend time in community with people who are unwilling to accept that work is merely what is given to us. We get to make and take our work, too, now as much as ever. everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
Inviting people to refuse a technology requires both models and support for alternatives. Instead of cars, protected bike lanes and a community of cyclists; instead of social media, third spaces and communal practices; instead of AI, work that is autonomous and dignified, etc., etc.
November 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Inviting people to refuse a technology requires both models and support for alternatives. Instead of cars, protected bike lanes and a community of cyclists; instead of social media, third spaces and communal practices; instead of AI, work that is autonomous and dignified, etc., etc.
Agree with the point about offering alternatives here, but will add: much “popular” tech is terrible for people and society. Guns, cars, Facebook, AI—all very popular, all diabolical. Popular tech is routinely a horror. https://www.anildash.com/2025/11/14/wanting-not-to-want-ai/
I know you don’t want them to want AI, but… - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
www.anildash.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Agree with the point about offering alternatives here, but will add: much “popular” tech is terrible for people and society. Guns, cars, Facebook, AI—all very popular, all diabolical. Popular tech is routinely a horror. https://www.anildash.com/2025/11/14/wanting-not-to-want-ai/
Bob Black’s *Abolition of Work* has hit hard every time I’ve read it, but it hits a little harder every year. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work
The Abolition of Work
Bob Black The Abolition of Work 1991 This essay originated as a speech in 1980. A revised and enlarged version was published as a pamphlet in 1985, and in...
theanarchistlibrary.org
November 11, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Bob Black’s *Abolition of Work* has hit hard every time I’ve read it, but it hits a little harder every year. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work
“Work is usually imagined in terms of the ego and his muscles….But the dream-work and the work on dreams returns work to the invisible earth, from literal reality to imaginative reality.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/psychology-of-craft
Psychology of craft
“Shaping, handling, and doing something with the psychic stuff.”
aworkinglibrary.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:01 PM
“Work is usually imagined in terms of the ego and his muscles….But the dream-work and the work on dreams returns work to the invisible earth, from literal reality to imaginative reality.” https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/psychology-of-craft
“AI is an agreement machine, which is anathema to learning and critical thinking.” https://www.404media.co/ai-is-supercharging-the-war-on-libraries-education-and-human-knowledge
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
“AI is an agreement machine, which is anathema to learning and critical thinking.” https://www.404media.co/ai-is-supercharging-the-war-on-libraries-education-and-human-knowledge
“I have good news for you, though: assholes are a minority. People of conscience, people with good will and good intentions have always outnumbered psychopaths and sycophants.” https://okayfail.com/2025/in-praise-of-dhh.html
November 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM
“I have good news for you, though: assholes are a minority. People of conscience, people with good will and good intentions have always outnumbered psychopaths and sycophants.” https://okayfail.com/2025/in-praise-of-dhh.html
Among the many privileges of the work that I do these days is being able to walk alongside people as they make big, terrifying transitions in their work and lives.
November 6, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Among the many privileges of the work that I do these days is being able to walk alongside people as they make big, terrifying transitions in their work and lives.
I want to posit that one of the things we mean when we say we’re “procrastinating” is that our own sense of what matters has diverged from what our boss or company is concerned with. That is, procrastination is often a political conflict, not a personal failing.
November 4, 2025 at 3:52 PM
I want to posit that one of the things we mean when we say we’re “procrastinating” is that our own sense of what matters has diverged from what our boss or company is concerned with. That is, procrastination is often a political conflict, not a personal failing.
“To be a Luddite today is to refuse the fatalism of techno-inevitability & to demand that technology serve the many, not the few. It is to assert that questions of labor, agency & justice must come before speed, efficiency & scale.” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/we-should-all-be-luddites/
We should all be Luddites
Courtney Radsch discusses rehabilitating the idea of Luddites as people concerned with the control and impact of technology.
www.brookings.edu
October 31, 2025 at 2:53 PM
“To be a Luddite today is to refuse the fatalism of techno-inevitability & to demand that technology serve the many, not the few. It is to assert that questions of labor, agency & justice must come before speed, efficiency & scale.” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/we-should-all-be-luddites/