hey i'm winston. i read a lot for fun and to help me better understand and interrogate our world. this web-blog is where i chronicle some of my learning. i work as a technical product manager.
Recent posts
Two Book Recommendations
In the past week I finished two books that were extremely generative in my ongoing quest to make sense of this fucked up world we live in, and I liked them so much I want to write a quick recommendation post.
Motivation, Systems, and Power
A response to a recent blog post "Thoughts on Motivation and my 40-year career"
Some Rough Thoughts Against Automation
what i see that concerns me the most is that in a moment where we need experimentation and to open space for myriad new possibilities, we are instead trying to cement into place the world we have by gathering up all the data we have available and automating things _as they are now._
A Story I'm Telling Myself
We are, in this moment, in a battle between the existence of many complex, richly diverse, thriving futures, and the existence of a simple, complicated, fragile future. The people who have siezed power in the US are actively building the latter vision; but the vast majority of people want the former. I will explain my thinking.
Recently Read
Wolf Island
Copyright 2020, University of Minnesota Press
Climate Change, Cultural Analysis
Artificial Condition
Copyright 2018, Tordotcom
Fiction
(3rd time reading)
Theory of Water
Copyright 2025, Haymarket
Climate Change, Indigenous Issues, Cultural Analysis
Adaptable
Copyright 2025, Avery
Cultural Analysis
All Systems Read
Copyright 2017, Tordotcom
Fiction
(3rd time reading)
New Dark Age
Copyright 2019, Verso
Tech Industry, Cultural Analysis
Last Chance to Save the World
Copyright 2025, DAW
Fiction
How to Save a Galaxy
Copyright 2024, DAW
Fiction
Links of Note
Articles, papers, and other things that don't make it on to my reading page.
The World is Toxic. Welcome to the Metabolic Era
The Stones Shall Cry out: Consciousness, Rocks, and Indians
On Nonscalability: The Living World is Not Amenable to Precision-Nested Scales
Feminists write the Anthropocene: three tales of possibility in Late Capitalism
Decolonization is not a Metaphor
Disability, Bias, and AI