Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
@avenk.bsky.social
design researcher, ritual technologist, neuroatypical in unsatisfactory ways. i sense and work towards emergent futures. let’s make the world a place of flourishing for all life.
Pinned
Every so often, I will issue a “for fucks’ sake” into the blue sky aether. There will not be a specified reason. This is because there are enough things to be going “for fuck’s sake” about.
That will be your reminder to notice, feel and release frustration at whatever nonsense you’re seeing.
That will be your reminder to notice, feel and release frustration at whatever nonsense you’re seeing.
I updated my phone to iOS 26 but that is nothing compared to how all of the news today has made me wish I had not been using my eyes.
November 15, 2025 at 4:17 AM
I updated my phone to iOS 26 but that is nothing compared to how all of the news today has made me wish I had not been using my eyes.
This is a whole new level of minimalism.
November 15, 2025 at 3:16 AM
This is a whole new level of minimalism.
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Proudly comparing your app to both black mirror and squid games has to be a bit
November 14, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Proudly comparing your app to both black mirror and squid games has to be a bit
I went check in on the bad place and found that the url contains ‘logout’, which explains why I keep having to login on my monthly visits.
My guess is they’re force-logging people out to get them on the app.
Hostile AND incompetent, as usual.
My guess is they’re force-logging people out to get them on the app.
Hostile AND incompetent, as usual.
November 14, 2025 at 12:13 AM
I went check in on the bad place and found that the url contains ‘logout’, which explains why I keep having to login on my monthly visits.
My guess is they’re force-logging people out to get them on the app.
Hostile AND incompetent, as usual.
My guess is they’re force-logging people out to get them on the app.
Hostile AND incompetent, as usual.
I went on a stupid mental health walk for my stupid mental health and now I have to thank @danhon.com for the only usable frame I have ever found for doing this annoying activity.
November 13, 2025 at 4:13 AM
I went on a stupid mental health walk for my stupid mental health and now I have to thank @danhon.com for the only usable frame I have ever found for doing this annoying activity.
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
We've just launched the first large, site-less (home, direct to participant) randomized trial for treatment of #LongCovid, testing tirzepatide (a GLP-1 drug) vs placebo. Please help spread the word
www.scripps.edu/news-and-eve...
www.scripps.edu/news-and-eve...
Scripps Research scientists launch new digital clinical trial to test repurposed drug for long COVID symptom relief
www.scripps.edu
October 31, 2025 at 5:07 PM
We've just launched the first large, site-less (home, direct to participant) randomized trial for treatment of #LongCovid, testing tirzepatide (a GLP-1 drug) vs placebo. Please help spread the word
www.scripps.edu/news-and-eve...
www.scripps.edu/news-and-eve...
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Started a thread in the other place and bringing it over here - I really think we should be more vocal about the opportunities that lay at the intersection of these two options!
So I'm starting a live thread of new roles as I become aware of them - feel free to add / extend / share :
So I'm starting a live thread of new roles as I become aware of them - feel free to add / extend / share :
Life situations are bleak right now for a lot of people. In tech, the "Venn Diagram" of (1) positive work and (2) making enough money to support your family is increasingly non-overlapping. We all do what we can.
This image has been living in my mind rent-free for months.
This image has been living in my mind rent-free for months.
October 29, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Started a thread in the other place and bringing it over here - I really think we should be more vocal about the opportunities that lay at the intersection of these two options!
So I'm starting a live thread of new roles as I become aware of them - feel free to add / extend / share :
So I'm starting a live thread of new roles as I become aware of them - feel free to add / extend / share :
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Yeongno is the greatest mythical character.
A monster who must eat 100 corrupt politicians to get into heaven.
Why is it not more widely known? Despite being performed across Korea for centuries, no two towns can agree on what it looks like.
A monster who must eat 100 corrupt politicians to get into heaven.
Why is it not more widely known? Despite being performed across Korea for centuries, no two towns can agree on what it looks like.
October 25, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Crime in San Francisco is getting out of hand -
Giant skeletons are roaming the land.
People fear walking the streets at night
Lest they encounter fright – then delight!
Giant skeletons are roaming the land.
People fear walking the streets at night
Lest they encounter fright – then delight!
October 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Crime in San Francisco is getting out of hand -
Giant skeletons are roaming the land.
People fear walking the streets at night
Lest they encounter fright – then delight!
Giant skeletons are roaming the land.
People fear walking the streets at night
Lest they encounter fright – then delight!
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Actually here’s another question: if you don’t cook/don’t cook much for reasons relating to your own knowledge/skill/confidence, what would help? What kinds of things would you like to learn? Reposts very welcome on this!
(I have been talking for AGES about making a site to teach super basics of cooking for people who struggle with following recipes because they assume basic knowledge that lots of people don’t have now, this would be part of the page design)
October 21, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Actually here’s another question: if you don’t cook/don’t cook much for reasons relating to your own knowledge/skill/confidence, what would help? What kinds of things would you like to learn? Reposts very welcome on this!
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Write code to make being human easier. Rip code out if it makes being human harder. Write code to make caring for each other easier. Rip it out if it makes caring for each other harder.
Empathy driven development has literally never failed me. It’s done me better than everything else combined
Empathy driven development has literally never failed me. It’s done me better than everything else combined
October 21, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Write code to make being human easier. Rip code out if it makes being human harder. Write code to make caring for each other easier. Rip it out if it makes caring for each other harder.
Empathy driven development has literally never failed me. It’s done me better than everything else combined
Empathy driven development has literally never failed me. It’s done me better than everything else combined
You guys, this is not funny, an internet only does this is when it is in distress.
October 20, 2025 at 11:33 PM
You guys, this is not funny, an internet only does this is when it is in distress.
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
SNAP benefits are going to be paused on November 1. If you are able, now is a good time to give to food banks, food pantries, or local mutual aid groups.
October 20, 2025 at 2:10 PM
SNAP benefits are going to be paused on November 1. If you are able, now is a good time to give to food banks, food pantries, or local mutual aid groups.
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Ooooh is your internet broken. Did someone's immaterial web of financial speculation and surveillance turn out to have a failure point in material infrastructure
October 20, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Ooooh is your internet broken. Did someone's immaterial web of financial speculation and surveillance turn out to have a failure point in material infrastructure
I’ll going to start calling any AI-enabled user / design research “vibe insights” unless an inductive analysis process can be demonstrated.
(Narrator: this could not, in fact, be demonstrated.)
(Narrator: this could not, in fact, be demonstrated.)
October 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I’ll going to start calling any AI-enabled user / design research “vibe insights” unless an inductive analysis process can be demonstrated.
(Narrator: this could not, in fact, be demonstrated.)
(Narrator: this could not, in fact, be demonstrated.)
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Yesssss!!! Our lab has a new paper out, and it comes with an awesome story:
Kailua Beach, Hawai’i: The first time I laid eyes on a By-the-wind sailor, I stopped dead in my tracks, dusted the sand off my hands, grabbed my iphone and...
October 15, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Yesssss!!! Our lab has a new paper out, and it comes with an awesome story:
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
Them: need help doing things?
Me: yes
Them: we have a doing things medication
Me: ooh
Them: hahahahaha guess what you have to do to get it?
Me: oh no
Them: things.
Me: yes
Them: we have a doing things medication
Me: ooh
Them: hahahahaha guess what you have to do to get it?
Me: oh no
Them: things.
October 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Them: need help doing things?
Me: yes
Them: we have a doing things medication
Me: ooh
Them: hahahahaha guess what you have to do to get it?
Me: oh no
Them: things.
Me: yes
Them: we have a doing things medication
Me: ooh
Them: hahahahaha guess what you have to do to get it?
Me: oh no
Them: things.
(Not a dunk on Sage)
There are professionals whose entire skill set lies in understanding feedback deeply & making the truth of it accessible to the rest of the organizations w/o asking everyone to do emotional labour to deal with the anger and frustration that passionate users bring. Hire them!
There are professionals whose entire skill set lies in understanding feedback deeply & making the truth of it accessible to the rest of the organizations w/o asking everyone to do emotional labour to deal with the anger and frustration that passionate users bring. Hire them!
the default state for most people to give feedback online borders on toxic. if you want different behavior, you have to nurture it & build trust.
the first step for that is clear communication about both positive & negative events. these most recent issues compounded because of poor comms.
the first step for that is clear communication about both positive & negative events. these most recent issues compounded because of poor comms.
October 7, 2025 at 7:14 AM
(Not a dunk on Sage)
There are professionals whose entire skill set lies in understanding feedback deeply & making the truth of it accessible to the rest of the organizations w/o asking everyone to do emotional labour to deal with the anger and frustration that passionate users bring. Hire them!
There are professionals whose entire skill set lies in understanding feedback deeply & making the truth of it accessible to the rest of the organizations w/o asking everyone to do emotional labour to deal with the anger and frustration that passionate users bring. Hire them!
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
You do not have your shit sorted as much as you think; you are not old; this is not your last chance to get strong but it’s the best time to start; life is not an exercise in what is enough; shitty jobs and spouses to the airlock; get free, get fed, then help others do the same.
Those who are 35+, what advice do you have for people just entering their 30s?
October 3, 2025 at 4:17 PM
You do not have your shit sorted as much as you think; you are not old; this is not your last chance to get strong but it’s the best time to start; life is not an exercise in what is enough; shitty jobs and spouses to the airlock; get free, get fed, then help others do the same.
Ooh this is juicy.
Professionalisation is alienation from context. Cut off from your “local” context, meaning is altered, and things get permissioned which would otherwise be forbidden by the relations in context.
Professionalisation is alienation from context. Cut off from your “local” context, meaning is altered, and things get permissioned which would otherwise be forbidden by the relations in context.
When I first started writing novels, I had a notion that one if the things that made badness in the world was “professionalisation”. By which I meant that many entities had a kind of fuzzy cloud of functions in the world beyond their pure ostensible function.
October 6, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Ooh this is juicy.
Professionalisation is alienation from context. Cut off from your “local” context, meaning is altered, and things get permissioned which would otherwise be forbidden by the relations in context.
Professionalisation is alienation from context. Cut off from your “local” context, meaning is altered, and things get permissioned which would otherwise be forbidden by the relations in context.
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert, Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that the rest of the statue is in the vulture nest.
Stand in the desert, Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that the rest of the statue is in the vulture nest.
super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉
Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts
Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.
www.popsci.com
October 3, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert, Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that the rest of the statue is in the vulture nest.
Stand in the desert, Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that the rest of the statue is in the vulture nest.
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
They keep it fun and engaging!
October 2, 2025 at 11:15 PM
They keep it fun and engaging!
I have decided that the number of emails I would like to receive per day is five (5). Please coordinate among yourselves to not exceed this quota.
Looking at the state of the world, I have decided that I permanently can’t even, until further notice.
September 29, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I have decided that the number of emails I would like to receive per day is five (5). Please coordinate among yourselves to not exceed this quota.
Looking at the state of the world, I have decided that I permanently can’t even, until further notice.
September 29, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Looking at the state of the world, I have decided that I permanently can’t even, until further notice.
Reposted by Arvind (has towel, not panicking)
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)