Justin
@justinskolnick.bsky.social
The only reason AI is the big deal it is right now is because in 2020 tech workers won long-sought concessions like WFH and started unionizing, and company owners and investors correctly understood the efforts to challenge their exclusive say-so over business priorities and worker scheduling
February 16, 2026 at 4:57 PM
The only reason AI is the big deal it is right now is because in 2020 tech workers won long-sought concessions like WFH and started unionizing, and company owners and investors correctly understood the efforts to challenge their exclusive say-so over business priorities and worker scheduling
Going to use AI to summarize these stories and read me the summaries
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 16, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Going to use AI to summarize these stories and read me the summaries
Unfortunately my writing has improved with daily practice
February 15, 2026 at 10:45 PM
Unfortunately my writing has improved with daily practice
Whatever the problem it’s gotta be in the genes or else we have to accept the changing nature of ideas and life
We really don't have to do this in order to level highly legitimate criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza.
February 15, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Whatever the problem it’s gotta be in the genes or else we have to accept the changing nature of ideas and life
Opening negotiations with your best compromise is the Democratic way
It's like sitting down in a negotiation and telling the person you're trying to get something out of that you're going to agree to the deal, regardless of what they put on the table. Even if that were true, it is obviously a bad idea to tell them that!
February 15, 2026 at 9:46 PM
Opening negotiations with your best compromise is the Democratic way
General rule for interacting with Justin fwiw
so, importantly, the point here is to not guess what he meant, but to instead, *ask the follow up*
February 15, 2026 at 5:09 PM
General rule for interacting with Justin fwiw
The day’s objectives are falafel and a cinnamon roll
February 14, 2026 at 8:02 PM
The day’s objectives are falafel and a cinnamon roll
Sort of an unfair advantage, coming of age in the triumphal pre-merger ELCA, where the moral-intellectual grounding for progressive social policy was there for the taking. Unproblematized whiteness, back then at least, but a good running start
Driving home from the ’07 synod assembly in Rosemont my pastor (passions: People Magazine and taunting homophobic colleagues) said she was sure the ELCA would pass full LGBTQ+ inclusion soon, then leaned closer and said “the Unitarians are going through this right now with polyamory” and tittered
This one's personal. I wrote about how three cities in #Cascadia may soon extend anti-discrimination protections to people in non-monogamous or polyamorous relationships: www.cascadia-journal.com/polyamory-ri...
February 14, 2026 at 4:34 AM
Sort of an unfair advantage, coming of age in the triumphal pre-merger ELCA, where the moral-intellectual grounding for progressive social policy was there for the taking. Unproblematized whiteness, back then at least, but a good running start
Driving home from the ’07 synod assembly in Rosemont my pastor (passions: People Magazine and taunting homophobic colleagues) said she was sure the ELCA would pass full LGBTQ+ inclusion soon, then leaned closer and said “the Unitarians are going through this right now with polyamory” and tittered
This one's personal. I wrote about how three cities in #Cascadia may soon extend anti-discrimination protections to people in non-monogamous or polyamorous relationships: www.cascadia-journal.com/polyamory-ri...
Polyamory rights bills on the horizon in Olympia, Portland & Seattle💘
Cascadia has always been at the forefront of protecting the rights of individuals to live their sexuality authentically. Seattle was one of the first cities in the US to expand protections for employm...
www.cascadia-journal.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:17 AM
Driving home from the ’07 synod assembly in Rosemont my pastor (passions: People Magazine and taunting homophobic colleagues) said she was sure the ELCA would pass full LGBTQ+ inclusion soon, then leaned closer and said “the Unitarians are going through this right now with polyamory” and tittered
I’ve been seeing different emotional responses to Ring’s Super Bowl ad and the Epstein emails, and I’ve been assuming that anyone who’s made note of the difference has found reasons to account for them and kept their thinking to themselves, for reasons that I think are obvious, though the backlash
February 13, 2026 at 7:06 PM
I’ve been seeing different emotional responses to Ring’s Super Bowl ad and the Epstein emails, and I’ve been assuming that anyone who’s made note of the difference has found reasons to account for them and kept their thinking to themselves, for reasons that I think are obvious, though the backlash
And it seems another neighbor has mistaken mild encouragements and expressions of solidarity for a contract guaranteeing deference and escalating praise
February 13, 2026 at 6:32 PM
And it seems another neighbor has mistaken mild encouragements and expressions of solidarity for a contract guaranteeing deference and escalating praise
Men in middle age are discovering their feelings and I want no part in it. Don’t invite me to the drum circle. Save your confessions for the priest. Leave me out of it
February 13, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Men in middle age are discovering their feelings and I want no part in it. Don’t invite me to the drum circle. Save your confessions for the priest. Leave me out of it
Never sync your contacts with an app
February 13, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Never sync your contacts with an app
Reposted by Justin
OFFER VERY LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF
February 13, 2026 at 3:52 AM
OFFER VERY LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF
Joan Mitchell, friends
Mandres
The Joan Mitchell Foundation supports the essential contributions of artists and expands awareness of Joan Mitchell's life and work.
www.joanmitchellfoundation.org
February 13, 2026 at 4:29 AM
Joan Mitchell, friends
Probably fine
Anthropic head of AI safety quits, warning of "world in peril" & announces plan to study creative writing, as my college charges ahead in deal with Anthropic, which trained its tech on at least 25 books taken without permission from our Creative Writing faculty. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Anthropic AI safety researcher quits with 'world in peril' warning
It comes in the same week an OpenAI researcher resigned amid concerns about its decision to start testing ChatGPT ads.
www.bbc.com
February 13, 2026 at 1:33 AM
Probably fine
Reposted by Justin
So often I think about the theory - Nietzsche, Freud, D.H. Lawrence - that civilisation is a thin veneer and under it is a bubbling cauldron of fervid emotions, often directed against ‘the other’, that will break loose as soon as cracks appear.
February 12, 2026 at 3:20 PM
So often I think about the theory - Nietzsche, Freud, D.H. Lawrence - that civilisation is a thin veneer and under it is a bubbling cauldron of fervid emotions, often directed against ‘the other’, that will break loose as soon as cracks appear.
I'm serious about building out a Better Orestar if someone else can commit to developing the back-end
I’ve wanted to build a tool that makes Orestar data accessible like @bigblinkpdx.bsky.social aspires to do for city lobbying data
February 12, 2026 at 7:18 PM
I'm serious about building out a Better Orestar if someone else can commit to developing the back-end
Reposted by Justin
you missed the best one
February 12, 2026 at 4:21 PM
you missed the best one
Lord grant me the confidence of a tech-sector rationalist soliciting competitive bids for a full-scale buildout of a million person Vision
February 12, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Lord grant me the confidence of a tech-sector rationalist soliciting competitive bids for a full-scale buildout of a million person Vision
I need to see the PBA/PMC make the first sacrifice if they’re serious about “securing the long-term future of the Portland Trailblazers” as their top legislative priority.
Downtown property owners subsidize the group’s lobbying efforts through the Downtown Clean & Safe ESD to the tune of $10m/year.
Downtown property owners subsidize the group’s lobbying efforts through the Downtown Clean & Safe ESD to the tune of $10m/year.
City and state officials have vowed to keep the Trail Blazers in Portland, but to do that they need to raise more than a half a billion dollars to renovate the nearly 30-year-old Moda Center. Portland's mayor has suggested a solution: tapping into the city's climate fund.
Inside Portland’s $1.7B climate fund, which is being floated to help fix the Moda Center
Portland’s billion dollar climate fund is being eyed to help pay for upgrades to the Moda Center, in an effort to keep the Trail Blazers in the city.
www.opb.org
February 11, 2026 at 6:18 PM
I need to see the PBA/PMC make the first sacrifice if they’re serious about “securing the long-term future of the Portland Trailblazers” as their top legislative priority.
Downtown property owners subsidize the group’s lobbying efforts through the Downtown Clean & Safe ESD to the tune of $10m/year.
Downtown property owners subsidize the group’s lobbying efforts through the Downtown Clean & Safe ESD to the tune of $10m/year.
Reposted by Justin
As someone who works on a machine learning team, the fact that the hype isn’t true is not a left position, it’s an industry position.
And as a historian, I know that whatever you are confidently told is inevitable IS NOT. That’s not how time works.
And as a historian, I know that whatever you are confidently told is inevitable IS NOT. That’s not how time works.
I understand why people are exhausted by AI hype, and why those of us squarely in the corner of "human dignity uber alles" see AI doomerism as self-serving hype, but I *really* think people on the left broadly need to start thinking seriously about the possibiltiy of the hype being...true.
February 11, 2026 at 5:36 PM
As someone who works on a machine learning team, the fact that the hype isn’t true is not a left position, it’s an industry position.
And as a historian, I know that whatever you are confidently told is inevitable IS NOT. That’s not how time works.
And as a historian, I know that whatever you are confidently told is inevitable IS NOT. That’s not how time works.
Reposted by Justin
No one has seriously said LLMs aren’t important or that AI is categorically junk.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
February 11, 2026 at 5:53 PM
No one has seriously said LLMs aren’t important or that AI is categorically junk.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.
A lobbying group called and enthusiastically patched me through to my state rep‘s office to urge a yes vote on letting the state override local opposition to AVs. I told my rep to vote no. Saved me from dialing
February 10, 2026 at 8:48 PM
A lobbying group called and enthusiastically patched me through to my state rep‘s office to urge a yes vote on letting the state override local opposition to AVs. I told my rep to vote no. Saved me from dialing
Reposted by Justin
"explaining a problem visually in 30 seconds" is also why congress got furious at tiktok: because zoomers were learning about the Gaza genocide, and there wasn't anything they could do to push back on that flow of information.
extremely hopeful, honestly. as long as you can explain the problem visually in 30 seconds you really can make people understand things they've otherwise been tricked about
ring just did it, uh, accidentally
ring just did it, uh, accidentally
February 10, 2026 at 4:26 PM
"explaining a problem visually in 30 seconds" is also why congress got furious at tiktok: because zoomers were learning about the Gaza genocide, and there wasn't anything they could do to push back on that flow of information.