Sarah Barrett
@documentalope.bsky.social
Director, Special Projects for the State of Eternity.
IA, Systems thinking, product management
She/her
sarahrbarrett.com
IA, Systems thinking, product management
She/her
sarahrbarrett.com
This would solve a lot of my problems.
I keep saying that someone can make a fortune manufacturing small, lightweight manual typewriters. Sell them by the class set with a wheeled cart included. Use them for all in-class writing and assessment. Nobody should have to read student handwriting or AI slop.
it'a interesting to me that the TI-84 type calculator's only feature that makes it a profitable product today is that it doesn't have internet. I wonder if we need a writing version: small computer, keyboard, can load pdfs and turn in assignments. would make in class writing assignments a lot easier
December 3, 2025 at 1:03 AM
This would solve a lot of my problems.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
For the past six weeks, an AI Facebook account has been pulling my history posts on Instagram and slopping out new captions, so I’ve been feeding it poison pills and its followers are having meltdowns in the comments. It’s been pretty spectacular.
November 30, 2025 at 2:10 AM
For the past six weeks, an AI Facebook account has been pulling my history posts on Instagram and slopping out new captions, so I’ve been feeding it poison pills and its followers are having meltdowns in the comments. It’s been pretty spectacular.
Hey @brownorama.bsky.social 2026 is the year of the curious squid
Post by @terrypratchettestate · 1 image
💬 0 🔁 479 ❤️ 681 · The Roundworld year for 2026 shall be known as [FX Drum Roll]: The Year of the Curious Squid.
Artwork by Discworld artist Paul Kidby.
www.tumblr.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Hey @brownorama.bsky.social 2026 is the year of the curious squid
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
This gets right at my core opinion about AGI: we're not going to get anything like actual "intelligence" from a brain in a jar (or a chip in a computer). Intelligence is ultimately about interacting with the world; only embodied creatures can develop it.
The most basic is that Cartesianism, broadly speaking, is false. The mind is embodied and embedded in the physical world. Meaning is not in the head. Reference, truth, and rational belief require the right kind of causal relationships to the world.
November 25, 2025 at 8:49 PM
This gets right at my core opinion about AGI: we're not going to get anything like actual "intelligence" from a brain in a jar (or a chip in a computer). Intelligence is ultimately about interacting with the world; only embodied creatures can develop it.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
Christmas is coming, and the Black Friday sales signal we’re in peak gift-buying season.
When you’re picking out gifts for friends and family this year, there’s a whole slew of tech products that are better to avoid. I put together a guide to help you through it.
When you’re picking out gifts for friends and family this year, there’s a whole slew of tech products that are better to avoid. I put together a guide to help you through it.
A tech critic’s guide to holiday gift-giving
Maybe your grandma doesn’t need that Alexa smart speaker
disconnect.blog
November 25, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Christmas is coming, and the Black Friday sales signal we’re in peak gift-buying season.
When you’re picking out gifts for friends and family this year, there’s a whole slew of tech products that are better to avoid. I put together a guide to help you through it.
When you’re picking out gifts for friends and family this year, there’s a whole slew of tech products that are better to avoid. I put together a guide to help you through it.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
As UX died away, Product Management took over, as it progressed any idea of Human Centredness fell away too
AI is perfect product therefore for this period. There is no human need or capacity at the core, it is the technical & managerial capability to have a process of building & controlling 1/2
AI is perfect product therefore for this period. There is no human need or capacity at the core, it is the technical & managerial capability to have a process of building & controlling 1/2
November 24, 2025 at 7:56 AM
As UX died away, Product Management took over, as it progressed any idea of Human Centredness fell away too
AI is perfect product therefore for this period. There is no human need or capacity at the core, it is the technical & managerial capability to have a process of building & controlling 1/2
AI is perfect product therefore for this period. There is no human need or capacity at the core, it is the technical & managerial capability to have a process of building & controlling 1/2
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
like we don't have to accept everything as it is except allow google to do a massive expropriation of public resources in the name of safety. We can make things better! Reduce VMT, slow down cars, change infrastructure. We know how! Other cities and countries have done it /
November 24, 2025 at 10:21 PM
like we don't have to accept everything as it is except allow google to do a massive expropriation of public resources in the name of safety. We can make things better! Reduce VMT, slow down cars, change infrastructure. We know how! Other cities and countries have done it /
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
The first edition of Conversational Design is available as a free download. I think more people should read it before they go making every interface into chatbots.
www.mulebooks.com/conversation...
www.mulebooks.com/conversation...
Conversational Design — MULE BOOKS
The interaction design book that explains why chatbots tend to suck
www.mulebooks.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:38 PM
The first edition of Conversational Design is available as a free download. I think more people should read it before they go making every interface into chatbots.
www.mulebooks.com/conversation...
www.mulebooks.com/conversation...
This is such a delight!
Good news: If you would like to watch Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants on YouTube I have done a painstaking 4k upscale of this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gW...
November 18, 2025 at 2:54 AM
This is such a delight!
Half an hour in to the first episode of Bookish, and it is everything I want on a rainy November evening. British 1940s murder mystery, not too grim, excellent tweeds.
Bookish (TV Series 2025– ) ⭐ 6.8 | Crime, Drama
Bookish: Created by Mark Gatiss. With Mark Gatiss, Polly Walker, Connor Finch, Elliot Levey. Gabriel Book, proprietor of an antiquarian bookshop, relies on his vast collection to unravel baffling case...
m.imdb.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Half an hour in to the first episode of Bookish, and it is everything I want on a rainy November evening. British 1940s murder mystery, not too grim, excellent tweeds.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
We are a social species, and we have always prevailed through cooperation. Caring for our sick. Raising children we didn't sire or birth because they were part of our village or extended family. We are not breeders and predators, we are communicators and survivors. We evolved to UNITE.
November 14, 2025 at 9:17 AM
We are a social species, and we have always prevailed through cooperation. Caring for our sick. Raising children we didn't sire or birth because they were part of our village or extended family. We are not breeders and predators, we are communicators and survivors. We evolved to UNITE.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
One more thing. When I wrote about this study showing one-third of Americans don't drive, people were messaging me saying this cannot be true for LA.
In LA County *23 percent* of the population is under 16. Kids are people! We must plan for their movement, just like all nondrivers. Hope that helps!
In LA County *23 percent* of the population is under 16. Kids are people! We must plan for their movement, just like all nondrivers. Hope that helps!
Highly recommend diving into NRDC's study on car access, which @keawilson.bsky.social wrote about here: usa.streetsblog.org/2025/10/02/report-16-million-have-no-car-access-at-all
Where Nadir was killed, 14% of LA households are car-free. But the infrastructure does not match that reality
Where Nadir was killed, 14% of LA households are car-free. But the infrastructure does not match that reality
November 13, 2025 at 5:04 PM
One more thing. When I wrote about this study showing one-third of Americans don't drive, people were messaging me saying this cannot be true for LA.
In LA County *23 percent* of the population is under 16. Kids are people! We must plan for their movement, just like all nondrivers. Hope that helps!
In LA County *23 percent* of the population is under 16. Kids are people! We must plan for their movement, just like all nondrivers. Hope that helps!
Hell yeah Katie
Katie Wilson wins Seattle mayoral race, incumbent Bruce Harrell appears to be preparing to concede
The exciting race for Mayor of Seattle can now be called. With almost no ballots left to count, challenger Katie Wilson has an advantage that incumbent Bruce Harrell cannot overcome.
The exciting race for Mayor of Seattle can now be called. With almost no ballots left to count, challenger Katie Wilson has an advantage that incumbent Bruce Harrell cannot overcome.
Katie Wilson wins Seattle mayoral race, incumbent Bruce Harrell appears to be preparing to concede
The exciting race for Mayor of Seattle can now be called. With almost no ballots left to count, challenger Katie Wilson has an advantage that incumbent Bruce Harrell cannot overcome.
www.nwprogressive.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Hell yeah Katie
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
there's a priest who's job, twice a day, is to lift a floor stone in the nave and check the water level with a Holy Dipstick and communicate if the sluice needs adjusting
again, i am not exaggerating
again, i am not exaggerating
November 12, 2025 at 12:57 PM
there's a priest who's job, twice a day, is to lift a floor stone in the nave and check the water level with a Holy Dipstick and communicate if the sluice needs adjusting
again, i am not exaggerating
again, i am not exaggerating
Nobody asked, but what with everything, I am going to share my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, in case you want to try something new. I have cooked Thanksgiving for 10+ most of years for the last decade, and they are all bangers.
November 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Nobody asked, but what with everything, I am going to share my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, in case you want to try something new. I have cooked Thanksgiving for 10+ most of years for the last decade, and they are all bangers.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
The whole piece is excellent but these paragraphs here are absolute bangers. And boy but it’s refreshing to see the New Yorker critique centrist views (here’s the archived version if you haven’t got a subscription: archive.ph/UNdFj).
November 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The whole piece is excellent but these paragraphs here are absolute bangers. And boy but it’s refreshing to see the New Yorker critique centrist views (here’s the archived version if you haven’t got a subscription: archive.ph/UNdFj).
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
a parade of sickos preternaturally perhaps inevitably interested in whatever it is I'm sellin
The thing is, people would create and use personas without any research at all.
November 9, 2025 at 8:21 AM
a parade of sickos preternaturally perhaps inevitably interested in whatever it is I'm sellin
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
and if you *are* a ghoul, faking decency is the price of admission into polite society. seethe about it on your own time
November 7, 2025 at 7:46 PM
and if you *are* a ghoul, faking decency is the price of admission into polite society. seethe about it on your own time
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
I could write an entire essay about who gets to expect feelings of safety all the time and who doesn’t (and whose concerns are ignored in the name of “safety”).
One thing the NYC mayoral race underscored for me is how easily the phrase "I don't feel safe" can be weaponized. It's an argument I would hesitate ever to use again, even for a good cause. I hope we can all agree that we have the right to BE safe. Maybe we should leave it at that.
November 7, 2025 at 5:14 PM
I could write an entire essay about who gets to expect feelings of safety all the time and who doesn’t (and whose concerns are ignored in the name of “safety”).
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
Visited a recreation of Cybersyn — the Chilean socialist internet that predates the web. It had programs to communicate with a decentralized network of telex machines at factories (Cybernet), economic simulators (CHECO & Cyberstride), and this control room
Goal was to control the economy with clicks
Goal was to control the economy with clicks
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Visited a recreation of Cybersyn — the Chilean socialist internet that predates the web. It had programs to communicate with a decentralized network of telex machines at factories (Cybernet), economic simulators (CHECO & Cyberstride), and this control room
Goal was to control the economy with clicks
Goal was to control the economy with clicks
This is really interesting to me, because this is how I approach working groups (as opposed to endless nebulous v teams.) All of this is enabled by explicit but disposable structure.
“Anarchy doesn’t mean you can’t organise, but it should be done voluntary, functional, temporal and small”
November 6, 2025 at 5:13 PM
This is really interesting to me, because this is how I approach working groups (as opposed to endless nebulous v teams.) All of this is enabled by explicit but disposable structure.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
📣 This race isn't over folks! 📣
Make sure your vote counts! Tap the link below to check on your ballot.
☑️🗳️: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/...
Make sure your vote counts! Tap the link below to check on your ballot.
☑️🗳️: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/...
November 5, 2025 at 7:15 PM
📣 This race isn't over folks! 📣
Make sure your vote counts! Tap the link below to check on your ballot.
☑️🗳️: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/...
Make sure your vote counts! Tap the link below to check on your ballot.
☑️🗳️: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/...
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
I have the same attitude about it as I have about CS: GROW UP. Not teaching people isn't rigor. If you achieved status in either of those fields stop swanning around on the altar of how easy it is when everyone has a genius stereotype about your field. Those achievement gaps are *your* problem.
November 4, 2025 at 6:56 PM
I have the same attitude about it as I have about CS: GROW UP. Not teaching people isn't rigor. If you achieved status in either of those fields stop swanning around on the altar of how easy it is when everyone has a genius stereotype about your field. Those achievement gaps are *your* problem.
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
YEEEEESSSSSS FUCK YES!
November 3, 2025 at 6:37 PM
YEEEEESSSSSS FUCK YES!
Reposted by Sarah Barrett
I’m just, you know, a philosopher, but it seems obvious that intelligence is social and relational and the AI bros are deeply invested in it being private property that can be owned, so they will always always miss the mark.
November 3, 2025 at 12:55 PM
I’m just, you know, a philosopher, but it seems obvious that intelligence is social and relational and the AI bros are deeply invested in it being private property that can be owned, so they will always always miss the mark.