Hilary Mason
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hmason.bsky.social
Hilary Mason
@hmason.bsky.social
7.6K followers 840 following 400 posts
Co-founder & CEO of Hidden Door. I <3 cheeseburgers and making beautiful things. I know a thing or two about AI, but it's people who matter. I am interested in many things.

NYC
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hmason.bsky.social
Oh Paula, I would like a word.
A screenshot of an article in The Canberra Times with the title "How sitting down to write her memoir led to a debut novel" by Paula McClean with the first sentence "Paula McClean's debut novel, The One Remaining, is the fictitious memoir of a fictitious novelist named Hilary Mason." The last line is fading to unreadable white, as I have not paid for access to the full article.
October 17, 2025 at 12:42 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Good advice, random door.
A printed sign taped to a door with blue tape that says "X, DO NOT USE"
October 14, 2025 at 8:56 PM
hmason.bsky.social
“I fucking love tropes.” - @scalzi.com

Strong start to NYCC with this incredible panel on SciFi tropes with @cjfarley.bsky.social, Emery Robin, Yume Kitasei, @scalzi.com and moderated by @juliesnyder.bsky.social
October 9, 2025 at 3:21 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Sometimes being a founder means staying up too late doing arts and crafts.

We'll be at #NYCC tomorrow with an exciting launch, come find us (or at least find our QR code to skip the waitlist)!
A pile of paper street posters in bright pink and orange that say WHERE FANFIC MEETS ROLEPLAY in a handwritten font. The bottom has a bunch of tearaways that are each a different trope. There's a hand and a scissor cutting them up.
October 9, 2025 at 2:24 AM
hmason.bsky.social
Okay bluesky please help me solve the mystery of why there is a blank VHS tape in this Tokyo subway station bathroom!

(Also if this message was meant for me, please try again, I accept USB keys, parchment scrawls, graffiti, Signal, I prefer to be in a comedy or spy movie no horror plz)
A photo of a toilet, above it is a shelf with extra toilet paper and an inexplicable VHS tape A zoomed in view of the tape
September 26, 2025 at 8:18 AM
hmason.bsky.social
Sep 11th.
A view of lower Manhattan and the Tribute in Light in remembrance of Sep 11th. The skies are perfectly clear the light doesn't end.
September 12, 2025 at 6:39 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Having minor regrets about my chosen company name 😅
A screenshot from a Google News search for "Hidden Door" showing articles about the company Hidden Door at the top and bottom. Between them are three articles about a Colorado coroner hiding bodies behind a "hidden door" in a funeral home. Words are hard.
September 2, 2025 at 8:35 PM
hmason.bsky.social
I'm so excited that Hidden Door is out in the world today!

We're thrilled to launch our roleplay meets fanfic platform, where we are making the tech, game, and biz in sync to let us all share more of the worlds we love, while rewarding the brilliant writers we admire.

Check it out at hiddendoor.co
A photograph of a neon sign of the Hidden Door Narrator, against a black wall. There is a croissant on a plinth in front of her, as if an offering, and a large white candle next to her.
August 13, 2025 at 7:39 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Happy Saturday New York, I love you, I have some questions
The east river. In the foreground there’s a pink inflatable bull (maybe?) on top of another white animal on a pink inflated raft all on a small barge, the background is the Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building and Manhattan skyline
July 19, 2025 at 2:49 PM
hmason.bsky.social
I try not to amplify the awfulness, but this is just a straight up John Wick villain move
An excerpt from The Atlantic which says "The upshot is that an octogenarian Air Force retiree who spent half a century in his nation's service was not allowed to attend a party for a dog he essentially donated to the government and named after his dead wife."
July 18, 2025 at 12:48 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Okay, can anyone explain these fliers that someone mailed to my Brooklyn office from Dallas, TX? (Is it an ARG?)
Mysterious fliers photocopied onto bright yellow paper. One is in some kind of code. Titles of others are “vampire prank weekend” and “endurance karaoke at club scintilla” and “pika season is coming are you prepared?”
July 16, 2025 at 11:13 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Trying so hard to not write back and tell them how to fix their error
A screenshot of an email subject line that says "Media coverage for {[companyName}}" (which has an obvious bracket mismatch error)
July 15, 2025 at 1:01 AM
hmason.bsky.social
... "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus
November 2, 1883

www.nps.gov/stli/learn/h...
A photo of the statue of liberty at dusk. It's peaceful, and there are several small boats in the water.
July 4, 2025 at 10:27 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Just putting this screenshot here so I can point to it every time someone says “AI product design is not political”
June 14, 2025 at 1:03 PM
hmason.bsky.social
London's Phantom Peak is an incredibly underrated immersive show!

It's like immersive theater meets LARPing meets a video game meets and escape room. Also, they have ice cream.
The opening ceremonies at Phantom Peak, a large crowd gathered in a western-ish town around a man in purple with a microphone. A blacklight reveals a clue on a puzzle card in the foreground; the background is a "cemetery" set.
June 9, 2025 at 12:40 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Today’s vibe brought to you by a Brooklyn hardware store window.
A poor quality photo of a garden gnome flipping you off in a hardware store window display
May 5, 2025 at 4:06 PM
hmason.bsky.social
MoMA has an excellent 500 error page. More art errors, please.
The Error 500 page for MoMA, showing Edward Runscha's Various Small Fires and Milk, 1964
April 22, 2025 at 2:47 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Congrats to the Mayor of Bracket City on joining The Atlantic!

...seems right on point as a somewhat too intellectual competitor to the NYTimes Games.
A screenshot of the announcement that says Bracket City has "taken its rightful place alongside Emerson and Longefellow in the hallowed (digital) pages of The Atlantic"
April 8, 2025 at 2:45 PM
hmason.bsky.social
For something completely different, the @hiddendoor.co team is in NYC this week, and today we took a trip to the Mossman Lock Collection and the Horological Society at General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of The City of New York in midtown. Highly recommended if you like obscure museums!
A view of the General Society's library Clockworks! A Two Movement Lock
April 3, 2025 at 11:25 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Textile street art around Gowanus, Brooklyn. ❤️
A knit word bubble saying “resist” A knit word bubble saying “hope is work” A knit word bubble saying “you are loved”
March 29, 2025 at 7:00 PM
hmason.bsky.social
I just discovered that another Hilary Mason wrote this book and I NEED to get a copy

www.biblio.com/book/morisco...
The book cover for Morisco, A novel of naked passion and exotic adventure by Hilary Mason
March 28, 2025 at 8:54 PM
hmason.bsky.social
I came across this old photo I look at the National Museum of Scotland and it feels appropriate
An old sign saying PERSONS THROWING STONES AT THE TELEGRAPHS WILL BE PROSECUTED
March 27, 2025 at 10:45 PM
hmason.bsky.social
I'll leave you with two more etchings that capture a feeling of a city more than anything else,

Night Windows (1910): www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/...

Sixth Avenue and Thirtieth Street (1908): www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.115
March 25, 2025 at 4:39 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Side quest: I've spent the last 24 hours being mildly obsessed with the work of John Sloan, a turn of the century painter who captured the vibes of NYC life in the early 1900s.
John Sloan's painting "Sixth Avenue Elevated at Third Street" from 1928. It depicts the turning point of an elevated train with the sun setting over the city (and the Jefferson Market Library in the background), with several women holding hands and others crossing the street that seem drunk and happy.
March 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM
hmason.bsky.social
Happy Pi Day, American nerds!

This is a Brown Butter Apple Streusel from Four & Twenty Blackbirds (Brooklyn)
An apple pie with about 30% missing
March 14, 2025 at 9:29 PM