Rhys' Newsletter #48
Sarah Drinkwater on language in responsible tech. Also, the Grammys kinda suck.
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Sup.
1) Podcast this week: #82 Sarah Drinkwater, Omidyar: Building a Movement for Responsible Technology.
With Omidyar Network, Sarah has given grants to many of the top orgs in the responsible tech space: Center for Humane Tech, New Public, Zebra’s Unite, Logic School, and more.
How has she had such success? Part of this comes from changing their theory of change from top-down to bottom-up:
Sarah: When we started this work, we thought, “If you want better outcomes you talk to the top five people who make choices.” That was 2018. We learned a lot that year. We learned that even if you got in the room with these people, they were so bound up in their structures—the boards they had to answer to for hockey stick growth. It was very hard to make real change happen.
So now, part of our theory of change is to shift the people who we center. The people that we center now are in the middle of a hierarchy like the employees.
As an example, companies care about talent risk. Hiring engineers is very expensive. Where will an engineer go to work? Execs who listen to their workers are signaling one thing. Execs who listen to their shareholders signal a different thing.
Some tech workers think: “If I've only got limited time on this earth what does meaning look like for me?” While others will think, “Okay, gotta earn this dollar, gotta lock it down.” I totally respect either choice.
It’s tough to convince Zuck to change. It’s easier to build a movement that links into employee values.
There are lots of examples of this bottom-up thinking in Omidyar’s grantees: Zebra’s Unite is co-creating a movement around non-unicorn startups, New Public is co-creating a community around digital public infrastructure, Logic School is helping tech workers organize.
Whenever you see words like “community”, “network”, or “movement”, know that this bottom-up tactic is being used. It’s a good one :).
Later in our convo, Sarah explained how she especially likes to support language that reframes our thinking:
Sarah: I've always been interested in language.
We were inspired by the environmental scene. Everything changed when the notion of “climate change” emerged. It brought together loads of previous ills under one easily consumable name.
For us in responsible tech:
New Public has argued for new language—healthy digital public spaces.
Zebras Unite created a powerful identity. It said: The entrepreneur's goal is to be a unicorn, but actually unicorns aren't real, zebras are. They’re black and white at the same time. They make money and do good.
Time Well Spent also shifted our mindset. The idea of time being a valuable thing. Who doesn't want to spend their time well? To me, that's the most basic thing in the world.
I think these are all powerful narrative shifts that also have an identity behind them that people want to follow and be part of. It’s very compelling.
I love it when language itself can be a theory of change. It’s quite powerful.
Linking this back to Big History from podcast #80. Big History has a few narratives/theories that tie everything together. The Big Bang explains the history of our universe. Plate tectonics explains the history of Earth. Evolution explains the history of life.
“Software is eating the world” has done this for tech. What’s our new narrative?
If you're creating new language for responsible tech in a bottom-up way (or anything else), reach out to Sarah! She’s always looking for cool new ideas.
P.S. I learned that, before “climate change” and “global warming”, it was called “inadvertent climate modification”. What a mouthful. I’m glad it has changed.
LINKS
1) In response to my Little Free Library post last week, my aunt and uncle showed me a Little Free Fridge in Wallingford, Seattle:
One of my readers in food systems, Elise, gave her take on Little Free Pantries and Fridges:
From a food security perspective, I feel pretty ambivalent about them. They are not long term solutions to the issues of food insecurity and they are not always properly maintained or food safe.
However from a community building perspective I feel really positive about them. They give folks a sense of ownership and efficacy that is powerful and important. It does reduce shame related barriers to food access as well.
2) Last week I shared the crazy stat: it was in only 1974 that women in the US could get a loan without a male co-signer. One reader, Adrienne, responded:
These are a couple of my favorite awful U.S. mom stats -- until 1978, it was legal to discriminate against women on the basis of pregnancy. It wasn't until 1993 with the Family and Medical Leave Act that mothers were allowed 12 weeks of unpaid time after childbirth without being fired. (Compare that with Sweden, who started 3 months paid maternity leave for women in 1955; we still don't paid parental leave nationally in the U.S. in 2021.)
Not to mention the very real setback for working moms right now from the pandemic. I like this article. "The pandemic landed us back at our [women's] lowest workforce-participation levels since 1988."
3) John Oliver critiques Tucker Carlson.
Carlson is an expert at using the same tactics that we learned from ContraPoints in #43. He will “speak truth to power” (like Trump’s drain the swamp) and then “play the victim” when critiqued (“they’re trying to silence us!”).
These are difficult tactics to disentangle because sometimes we do want the little guy to speak out against The Man (David vs. Goliath). And sometimes we should care for victims.
It’s tough. Humans are at our weakest when our psychological vulnerabilities are exploited. Be wary when someone claims to be the victim!
4) The Onion: ‘Taco Bell For Life’ Winner Chooses To Receive Winnings As Single Lump Meal
5) Babylon Bee: Cuomo Invites All Accusers To Come Forward And Gather In New York Nursing Home
6) Rhys: J&J Stock Jumps After Vaccine Shown To Be 69% Effective
JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES
vTuber CodeMiko (above) is hiring software developers.
George Church is looking for bio post-docs to help revive the Woolly Mammoth
Zora, an NFT infrastructure protocol, is hiring Product Engineers.
Apply to be a Visiting Researcher at Other Internet, a hip writing crew.
I’m looking for a driven and concrete co-founder for Roote. Learn more and reach out here.
EVENTS
Effective Altruist Events Calendar (recurring)
Interintellect Salons (recurring)
The Stoa (recurring).
MUSIC
The 2021 Grammys Awards were held yesterday. In theory, this should be a cause for celebration. The best music of 2021? Count me in.
Unfortunately, I don’t respect the Grammys. Some reasons below:
They’ve essentially ignored one of the biggest genres of the last decade, hyperpop. They’ve never even nominated Grimes or 100 Gecs.
So many of their awards are just pure misses. I love Kanye, but to give Jesus is King Best Contemporary Christian Album? Please. It only received a 53 on Metacritic. (Fetch the Bolt Cutters received a 98.)
When they are right, they are late to the party. They awarded Best Global Music Album to Burna Boy’s Twice as Tall (2020), when his African Giant (2019) is a much better album.
Numbers aren’t everything, but they only recognized three of my fifteen Albums of the Year:
Best Alternative Music Album: Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (Winner)
Album of the Year: Women in Music Pt. III – Haim (Nominated)
Best Rap Album: A Written Testimony – Jay Electronica (Nominated)
More than anything, it’s the Grammys’ lack of curiosity that I find especially frustrating. In the seven years from 2012-2018, in the Best Global Music Album category, they nominated Ladysmith Black Mambaso (LBM) five times. (And eight of the last fourteen years.) I love LMB, but they are the first “world music” that any half-conscious American learns about. It’s like a 5th grader giving the Best Food award to hot dogs for ten years straight. Most of us mature to learn about brie, ceviche, and other foods besides hot dogs. We develop taste. Not the Grammys though.
They have this repetition problem in all categories, but it’s the worst in world music. Let’s say it’s 2020, and you’re excited to hear the cool new world artist that won best album. Unfortunately, it’s Angélique Kidjo. Again. She’s been nominated six times in the last decade or so, and won in both 2015 and 2016.
Or this year, 2021. Maybe some cool new people to learn about! The world is big. Eight billion people. That’s a lot of music. Nope, it’s just Antibalas, Tinariwen (three previous nominations), Bebel Gilberto (four previous nominations, daughter of João Gilberto) and Anoushka Shankar (seven previous nominations, daughter of Ravi Shankar). Again.
It’s especially sad because there is so much to eat besides hot dogs:
Korean metal. JAMBINAI 잠비나이 - SUN. TEARS. RED. (검은 빛은 붉은 빛으로).
Brazilian drag queen post-hardcore. Pabllo Vittar - Rajadão.
Ghanian mumble rap. Amaarae - HELLZ ANGEL
But those folks aren’t in the Grammys’ cool kids group. And that’s what you need to get nominated, as multiple artists protested about this year:
“The Grammys are an elusive process. It’s about behind-the-scenes private performances, knowing the right people, and campaigning through the grapevine.”
“Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there's no nomination considerations. Next year I'll I should send a basket of confectionary.”
Still, at least they nominated BTS for a Grammy this year, showing us that they’ve at least heard of East Asia. Not sure if they’ve heard of Spotify yet. They’re probably still learning about world music through CDs.
Sigh. Rant over.
I’ll stick with r/listentothis and Metacritic.
Hope you have a good week! Warmth, Rhys
❤️ Thanks to my generous patrons ❤️
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