Ethan Marcotte
@ethanmarcotte.com
designer, writer, roommate to two kittens. here’s my website: https://ethanmarcotte.com/
I think you deserve a union, and I wrote a book about that: https://youdeserveatechunion.com/
hi friend
I think you deserve a union, and I wrote a book about that: https://youdeserveatechunion.com/
hi friend
Pinned
Ethan Marcotte
@ethanmarcotte.com
· Dec 5
It is that time of year, so I thought I’d mention that my book YOU DESERVE A TECH UNION is very much a thing you can buy for any tech workers in your life. Or yourself!
You can buy it just about anywhere books are sold—or hey, ask your library to grab a copy! ethanmarcotte.com/books/you-de...
You can buy it just about anywhere books are sold—or hey, ask your library to grab a copy! ethanmarcotte.com/books/you-de...
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
if you will be in london, ontario next week, i will also be in london, ontario next week!
We're delighted to announce that we're co-hosting M.R. Sauter @oddletters.bsky.social, who will speak @westernu.ca next week on the right wing origins of venture capital. If you're interested in the the political economy of innovation, financial law, & democratic governance -- this one's for you!
January 8, 2026 at 5:33 PM
if you will be in london, ontario next week, i will also be in london, ontario next week!
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
Work in tech? Advice for the new year: ethanmarcotte.com/books/you-de...
You Deserve a Tech Union — ethanmarcotte.com
Read this page on ethanmarcotte.com
ethanmarcotte.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Work in tech? Advice for the new year: ethanmarcotte.com/books/you-de...
“npm install our dependencies. Download this 5GB file onto your ancient laptop. Build and start the containe—”
You bolt awake in the mountains of Carthage. You are not online. It is 217 BC. You are the general Hannibal, and you have changed your mind. The future cannot come to pass. Rome must burn.
You bolt awake in the mountains of Carthage. You are not online. It is 217 BC. You are the general Hannibal, and you have changed your mind. The future cannot come to pass. Rome must burn.
January 7, 2026 at 4:06 PM
“npm install our dependencies. Download this 5GB file onto your ancient laptop. Build and start the containe—”
You bolt awake in the mountains of Carthage. You are not online. It is 217 BC. You are the general Hannibal, and you have changed your mind. The future cannot come to pass. Rome must burn.
You bolt awake in the mountains of Carthage. You are not online. It is 217 BC. You are the general Hannibal, and you have changed your mind. The future cannot come to pass. Rome must burn.
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
"It underscores that the technology's real value isn't improving productivity, or even in improving products. Rather, it's a social mechanism employed to ensure compliance in the workplace, and to weaken worker power." ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/again...
Against the protection of stocking frames. — ethanmarcotte.com
“Artificial intelligence” is a failed technology. It’s time we described it that way.
ethanmarcotte.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:07 AM
"It underscores that the technology's real value isn't improving productivity, or even in improving products. Rather, it's a social mechanism employed to ensure compliance in the workplace, and to weaken worker power." ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/again...
said hi to a river for the first time this year 💜
January 3, 2026 at 4:19 AM
said hi to a river for the first time this year 💜
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
“Our frail thoughts. — Ethan Marcotte”
https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-frail-thoughts/
> I remain dismayed by what’s currently happening in tech, and at the same time I’m incredibly inspired by the people fighting for a better vision of it
https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-frail-thoughts/
> I remain dismayed by what’s currently happening in tech, and at the same time I’m incredibly inspired by the people fighting for a better vision of it
January 2, 2026 at 10:28 AM
“Our frail thoughts. — Ethan Marcotte”
https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-frail-thoughts/
> I remain dismayed by what’s currently happening in tech, and at the same time I’m incredibly inspired by the people fighting for a better vision of it
https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-frail-thoughts/
> I remain dismayed by what’s currently happening in tech, and at the same time I’m incredibly inspired by the people fighting for a better vision of it
🦊
I don’t know how to write about a year like this one; whenever I tried, I kept thinking about flowers.
So I thought I’d try flowers. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-fr...
I don’t know how to write about a year like this one; whenever I tried, I kept thinking about flowers.
So I thought I’d try flowers. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-fr...
Our frail thoughts. — ethanmarcotte.com
I should be writing about a terrifically difficult year. Instead, I’m thinking about flowers and dead men.
ethanmarcotte.com
December 31, 2025 at 8:06 PM
🦊
I don’t know how to write about a year like this one; whenever I tried, I kept thinking about flowers.
So I thought I’d try flowers. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-fr...
I don’t know how to write about a year like this one; whenever I tried, I kept thinking about flowers.
So I thought I’d try flowers. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/our-fr...
I wish I had the words to describe just how valuable @kissane.myatproto.social‘s latest essay feels to me: www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-...
Landslide; a ghost story
On March 27, 1964, a converted liberty ship named the SS Chena brought a shipment of supplies to the port of Valdez, Alaska. Valdez, which I need you to know is pronounced “valDEEZ,” sits at the end o...
www.wrecka.ge
December 24, 2025 at 3:16 PM
I wish I had the words to describe just how valuable @kissane.myatproto.social‘s latest essay feels to me: www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-...
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
I thought “what if the new archive on Unbreaking.org on developments in US restrictions on trans healthcare was easily printable, and I could keep a copy for myself and mail one to all my friends”.
It already is and I can!
unbreaking.org/issues/trans...
#uspol #antifascism #TransRights #zines
It already is and I can!
unbreaking.org/issues/trans...
#uspol #antifascism #TransRights #zines
Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
Unbreaking.org
December 23, 2025 at 7:57 PM
I thought “what if the new archive on Unbreaking.org on developments in US restrictions on trans healthcare was easily printable, and I could keep a copy for myself and mail one to all my friends”.
It already is and I can!
unbreaking.org/issues/trans...
#uspol #antifascism #TransRights #zines
It already is and I can!
unbreaking.org/issues/trans...
#uspol #antifascism #TransRights #zines
idk man, i’d just like to live in a future where i could stop finding new and increasingly worse applications for the That’s Photoshopped skillset i developed in the late nineties
December 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
idk man, i’d just like to live in a future where i could stop finding new and increasingly worse applications for the That’s Photoshopped skillset i developed in the late nineties
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
I concur wholeheartedly. Finding a community of lovely people, working to make sense, and come together to do so on their own time, and with their various skills and talents has really been such a boost in a dark, dark year. You can join us: unbreaking.org/how-to-help/
I meant what I said in June: contributing time to @unbreaking.org has consistently been a balm amid this trashfire of a year. That’s due entirely to the wonderful people in it, and getting to watch them quietly do such good, heartfelt work.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/unbrea...
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/unbrea...
Unbreaking. — ethanmarcotte.com
Here’s to new work, and to a little more clarity amid the chaos.
ethanmarcotte.com
December 19, 2025 at 9:18 PM
I concur wholeheartedly. Finding a community of lovely people, working to make sense, and come together to do so on their own time, and with their various skills and talents has really been such a boost in a dark, dark year. You can join us: unbreaking.org/how-to-help/
I cannot tell you just how *tremendously hard* various volunteers have worked on this massive @unbreaking.org update: sifting through awful, terrible news every single day, identifying connections and themes, all to build a clear picture of the harm the federal government’s caused.
20,000 words, 150 footnotes, 100+ timeline events = our attempt at documenting and synthesizing all the ways that the federal government has attempted to destroy access to gender-affirming care since January unbreaking.org/issues/trans...
Transgender Healthcare: Explainer — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
unbreaking.org
December 19, 2025 at 7:54 PM
I cannot tell you just how *tremendously hard* various volunteers have worked on this massive @unbreaking.org update: sifting through awful, terrible news every single day, identifying connections and themes, all to build a clear picture of the harm the federal government’s caused.
“When people try to sell you on the idea that the future is already settled, it is because it is deeply UN-settled.”
Needed to hear this today. Thank you, @tressiemcphd.bsky.social.
Needed to hear this today. Thank you, @tressiemcphd.bsky.social.
"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
December 19, 2025 at 7:33 PM
“When people try to sell you on the idea that the future is already settled, it is because it is deeply UN-settled.”
Needed to hear this today. Thank you, @tressiemcphd.bsky.social.
Needed to hear this today. Thank you, @tressiemcphd.bsky.social.
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
Sometimes courage is not the presence of hope but the absence of fucks
December 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Sometimes courage is not the presence of hope but the absence of fucks
these sad, broken, hurtful little men, and all the harm they do
December 18, 2025 at 8:27 PM
these sad, broken, hurtful little men, and all the harm they do
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
THEY'VE PUT ME ON THE POCKETSTATION COOP. I'M BEING RENDERED IN A 32 BY 32 GRID OF MONOCHROME PIXELS. THE BOYS BACK AT QUANTICO SAID THEY'RE GOING TO RELOCATE ME TO A "DOKO DEMO ISSYO" UNTIL THEY CAN GET THIS STRAIGHTENED OUT.
December 13, 2025 at 9:24 PM
THEY'VE PUT ME ON THE POCKETSTATION COOP. I'M BEING RENDERED IN A 32 BY 32 GRID OF MONOCHROME PIXELS. THE BOYS BACK AT QUANTICO SAID THEY'RE GOING TO RELOCATE ME TO A "DOKO DEMO ISSYO" UNTIL THEY CAN GET THIS STRAIGHTENED OUT.
i now have new career goals
tfw you realize you wore your new “butlerian jihad” shirt to a meet and greet with the company’s ai engineers
December 18, 2025 at 6:51 PM
i now have new career goals
i don’t think this “national design studio” is good at any of those words
December 15, 2025 at 9:38 PM
i don’t think this “national design studio” is good at any of those words
id Software just unionized, we LOVE to SEE IT www.rockpapershotgun.com/id-software-...
Id Software devs form "wall-to-wall" union, with 165 workers at Doom studio the latest to vote in favour
165 workers at Doom studio id Software have voted to unionise under the Communication Workers of America (CWA).
www.rockpapershotgun.com
December 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM
id Software just unionized, we LOVE to SEE IT www.rockpapershotgun.com/id-software-...
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
Tech bros don’t actually understand the sci-fi they claim to love. Thank you Al Jazeera English for having me on.
December 10, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Tech bros don’t actually understand the sci-fi they claim to love. Thank you Al Jazeera English for having me on.
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
Ethan is a great human, and this is a very human book in a time where that quality seems to be at risk. If you're in tech, maybe check it out?
It is that time of year, so I thought I’d mention that my book YOU DESERVE A TECH UNION is very much a thing you can buy for any tech workers in your life. Or yourself!
You can buy it just about anywhere books are sold—or hey, ask your library to grab a copy! ethanmarcotte.com/books/you-de...
You can buy it just about anywhere books are sold—or hey, ask your library to grab a copy! ethanmarcotte.com/books/you-de...
December 9, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Ethan is a great human, and this is a very human book in a time where that quality seems to be at risk. If you're in tech, maybe check it out?
Reposted by Ethan Marcotte
It is interesting (derogatory) that productivity is operationalized as "uploading to preprint servers"
After ChatGPT, increase in productivity of male researchers was higher than for female researchers, widening the productivity gap. male researchers use generative AI more & see higher efficiency improvement from its use than female researchers
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Gender disparities in the impact of generative artificial intelligence: Evidence from academia
Abstract. The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT has substantially increased individuals’ productivity. In this stu
academic.oup.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
It is interesting (derogatory) that productivity is operationalized as "uploading to preprint servers"
I moved my email off Google years ago, but I gather Gmail shipped some “react to this email” feature because I’ve started getting replies that contain nothing but absolutely massive thumbs-up or heart emojis
so I’ve got that going for me
so I’ve got that going for me
December 7, 2025 at 2:00 PM
I moved my email off Google years ago, but I gather Gmail shipped some “react to this email” feature because I’ve started getting replies that contain nothing but absolutely massive thumbs-up or heart emojis
so I’ve got that going for me
so I’ve got that going for me