The Things We Whisper
Let’s give ourselves permission to be honest about who we are and a little lazy - especially this summer
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Greetings from the Amtrak train, where I’m on the way to New Haven, Connecticut, for the governance in online speech leadership series. I’m incredibly excited to be reunited with some of my original colleagues at Facebook and other platforms to talk about the early and middle days of platform governance and policymaking. There will be a lot of stories about the early days of content moderation that will sound a lot like our version of “walking uphill both ways to school in the snow.” We’ll be doing that while also trying not to terrify the fellows joining who might be a little newer to the space.
After this, I’m in Wisconsin at the lake for the Fourth of July and then to California for TrustCon. So, expect some fishing content at a bare minimum.
Today’s newsletter is not about tech - though I do have a few tidbits at the end about Jennifer Pahlka’s book Recoding America and some good links on stories about the FEC and Taiwan’s election in January.
Instead, I want to share a bit about what I’m thinking about as we go into the summer and give myself - and maybe, by proxy, you - permission to rest, dream, and maybe, just maybe, be ok not being as productive (gasp!). (Won’t lie; I sat here for at least five minutes after I wrote the word permission to figure out how to put into words what I wanted to give myself permission for. I was like, what is ok to say? Then I yelled at myself for thinking about that because the whole point is to not do what others might think is ok. Oh, the brain.)
Let me explain.
First, I’ve noticed lately that the best conversations I’m having with people start with a whisper. A whisper about following astrology or tarot. A comment about a novel or tv show with no objective other than entertainment. Hushed tones about wanting to take it easy this summer.
The bigger life questions and discussions also start this way. Someone pulling me aside at a reception to ask me about the photoshoot I did last summer. Someone wanting to talk about how hard it is to be single, childless, or with children. How hard it is to live up to expectations.
These conversations start as whispers but inevitably turn into full-blown conversations that can last hours. I’ve tried to make it a practice lately that when I hear one of these asides to share that I, too, am into that. Tarot and astrology have been particularly rewarding for me these last six months. I grew up with people making fun of Nancy Reagan for turning to astrology when in the White House. Horoscopes were something that was fun to read now and then in the paper - but take it seriously? Um, no.
Now? I get it a little more. I’m getting more comfortable saying that I think I’m turning into a witch. Does that scare me a bit to say out loud? A little. Some of you might think I’ve lost my mind - maybe I have - but let me tell you, it has helped my anxiety so much.
According to my readings, this year - especially this summer - is going to be a period of massive transformation. This year's four themes are boundaries, transformation, abundance, and relationships. The tower, death, and devil cards keep coming up a lot. Some think of those as “bad” cards, but they just mean periods of change and/or holding on to the past. But also coming up a lot are the ten of cups, ten of pentacles, chariot, magician, and sun - all very lovely cards. The hierophant also comes up, which means the universe is sending me signs, so I better watch for them.
I’ve also learned that my moods really do change with the moon. Maybe I’m just manifesting it because I’m paying attention, but again knowing why I might be feeling off and knowing it too shall pass is just incredibly helpful. I’m also paying more attention to the signs nature gives me. The deer who just hung out with me in the woods for a bit last weekend. The lone firefly who hung out on the window screen one night. The spider that scurried across my windshield the night of a full moon.
But, Katie, you might say. Just the other week, you told us not to listen to fortune tellers. That’s right, I did, but I need to make a clarification about what I meant. There’s a difference between seeing that there will be various themes in the future and being specific about what those changes will be. For instance, astrology says we’re in for a very transformative twenty years. It doesn’t tell us exactly what will happen. That’s different than predicting that 2024 will be the last human election.
Why am I sharing all of this? Because more often than not - especially with women - I’m finding that many of us are into this. But we don’t openly talk about it unless we know we’re in a safe space. Because we’re afraid of how we might be judged.
Likewise, I’ve been talking a lot with others about how we feel the need for rest but how guilty that feels. For the last few weeks, my intuition has been getting stronger and stronger that I should slow down this summer. The universe is even taking steps - like having clients of mine reduce their contracts with me - to give me that space.
Am I relieved? Sort of. Am I freaking out? Hell yes.
Deep down in my bones, I feel that taking it slower is the right thing to do. I continue to have this feeling that I should be writing more. That I need to get that freaking podcast off the ground. That I should be daydreaming, taking long walks in nature, enjoying my garden, and just sitting and looking at the water. This part of me says I should stop putting others’ requests of me before my own desires. Doing so will make me even more successful than I can imagine.
Then the girl lizard part of my brain chimes up. But what about money? How will you judge your worth? What if you become irrelevant? What if you end up in a cardboard box on the side of the road?
When these questions pop up, I inevitably go to look at my bank account, and in my head, that account looks at me, rolls its eyes, and says, “You’re fine.”
But then the girl lizard brain is like, “NO, YOU AREN’T. Go back to being productive.”
Vicious cycle.
I had two amazing interactions this week. One with a woman I’ve never met before and another with one that I worked with at Facebook, but not closely.
In the first, the woman said she doesn’t understand why we allow the story when we want to make a change be that if we do so, we might end up penniless. Why isn’t the story we tell ourselves that by doing this, we could be richer than we ever imagined? Indeed, why isn’t it?
In the second, this former colleague reached out to me on WhatsApp yesterday morning. She said she had thought of me and wanted to reconnect. We quickly realized we were on similar spiritual journeys and trying to find other women who were also going through them. We found ourselves on voice chat while she was walking in Athens, and I was at the Eastern Shore. She said that as we were talking, she ducked into an alleyway she never had before, and it turned out to be full of crystal and spirituality shops. And, it ended up being the path she needed to be on to get to the place where she was meeting a friend.
Funny how the universe throws people together like that. We talked about how nervous we were about not being “productive” this summer. How we wanted to read books that were just for fun and not necessarily about making ourselves smarter or better. How we realized that by going with the flow of life, things come easier. How sometimes resting makes us more productive.
So, I’m trying to give myself permission to rest. To make more boundaries. To take scary steps that might mean less money in the short-term but potentially more success in the long term. To read that mindless novel. To sit and just look at the water.
And, if you need it. I give you permission for this too. If you have good ideas for summer books to read, send them to me. I’ll take your favorite tarot or oracle decks too. I’ll share them in a future newsletter.
Bonus Content
I’m a huge fan of Glennon Doyle. Her book, Untamed, is a must-read. She has a podcast that I listen to now and then, and this week was on “How to lose half your guilt.” It fits the theme of this newsletter. One part stood out to me in particular, which was that the icky feeling you get when you don’t follow others’ expectations is not guilt. And it’s ok for people to feel the way they do when we do something, but it doesn’t mean we have to change what we are doing.
Bonus Content, Part 2
I’m halfway through Jennifer Pahlka’s book Recoding America. It’s fantastic. She has an essay on LinkedIn about one of the concepts in the book - that there are no shortcuts or silver bullets. The limitations of policy without culture change. It made me think about what the unintended consequences of transparency reporting might have on the tech industry. She quotes a paper, Resisting Reduction, that I think describes some of the disconnects between how platforms govern themselves and how the outside world thinks it should work:
“Better interventions are less about solving or optimizing and more about developing a sensibility appropriate to the environment and the time.”
This is why I think we see tech policies change over time, and I would love to see a panel discussion on this quote alone and if people think it’s right or not.
Another good quote from the paper is, “We need to embrace the unknowability—the irreducibility—of the real world that artists, biologists, and those who work in the messy world of liberal arts and humanities are familiar with.”
Jobs
Georgetown Institute of Politics: Director of Programming
Integrity Institute: Inaugural Resident Fellowships Program
What I’m Reading
The Guardian: India secretly works to preserve reputation after ‘flawed democracy’ rating
The Washington Post: New video undercuts claim Twitter censored pro-Trump views before Jan. 6
Reuters: Taiwan on Alert for Chinese-Funded Election Interference
Integrity Institute: Announcing Integrity Institute's 2023 Visiting Fellows
PsychofTech: Unveiling the Neely Social Media Index and the Neely Artificial Intelligence Index
Morning Consult: American Views on AI
Morning Consult: AI Regulations and Bipartisan Support
House Judiciary Committee: Chairman Jordan Demands Transcribed Interview with Former Biden Digital Director
Senators Klobuchar, Welch and Durbin: Letter to YouTube on Election Misinformation
Reps. Pallone, Schakowsky, Matsui and Castor: Letter to YouTube on Election Misinformation
Federal Election Commission: FEC votes to not do rulemaking on use of AI for political ads
Meta: Changes to News Availability on Our Platforms in Canada
The Hollywood Reporter: Taylor Sheridan - Yellowstone Interview
Foreign Policy: Netflix Diplomat Keri Russell's Fashion and State Department Style
Calendar
🚨NEW 🚨
Topics to keep an eye on:
TV shows about Facebook - Doomsday Machine and second season of Super Pumped
June 25, 2023 – Guatemala election
June 27, 2023 - SXSW Panel Picker Opens
July 10, 2023 - Trust and Safety Hackathon
July 11-13, 2023 - TrustCon
Mid-July - Code of practice on disinformation platform reports due
July 2023 – Sudan election (likely to have further changes due clashes erupted mid-April, despite temporary humanitarian ceasefire,)
July 23, 2023 – Cambodia election
July 23, 2023 - Spain Election
August 10 - 13, 2023 - Defcon
August 21, 2023 - Meta responses to Oversight Board recommendations in Brazil election case due
August 23, 2023 - Zimbabwe Election
August-2023 – Eswatini election
August 23, 2023 - First GOP Presidential Primary Debate
August - End of UK parliamentary session. Must pass Online Safety Bill by then.
Mid-September: All Tech Is Human - Responsible Tech Summit NYC
September 19, 2023 - UN General Assembly high-level debate begins
September 27-29, 2023: Athens Democracy Forum
September 28-29, 2023 - Trust & Safety Research Conference
TBD September: Atlantic Festival
TBD September: Unfinished Live
September 2023 – Bhutan election
September 2023 – Tuvalu election
September 9, 2023 – Maldives election
September 28-29, 2023 - The Atlantic Festival
September 30, 2023 – Slovakia election
September 2023 – Rwanda election
October 2023 – Oman election
October 2023 Poland election
October 8, 2023 – Pakistan election
October 10, 2023 – Liberia election
October 14, 2023 – New Zealand election
October 22, 2023 – Switzerland election
October 29, 2023 – Argentina election
October 2023 – Gabon election
October 2023 – Ukraine election
November 15, 2023 - Aspen Cyber Summit
November 20, 2023 – Marshall Islands election
November 29, 2023 – Argentina election
December 1-3, 2023: Build Peace 2023 Conference
December 20, 2023 – Democratic Republic of the Congo election
December 2023 –Togo election
2023 or 2024 – Peru election
TBD – Dominica election
TBD – Luxembourg election
TBD – Myanmar election
TBD – Spain election
TBD – Gabon election
TBD – Madagascar election
TBD – Haiti election
TBD – Libya election
TBD – Singapore election
2024
January 2024 – Bangladesh election
January 2024 – Finland election
January 13, 2024 – Taiwan election
February 4, 2024 – El Salvador election
February 4, 2024 – Mali election
February 14, 2024 – Indonesia election
February 25, 2024 – Senegal election
February 25, 2024 – Belarus election
March 17, 2024 – Russia election
March 31, 2024 – Ukraine election
April 10, 2024 – South Korea election
April 2024 – Solomon Islands election
April 2024 – Maldives election
May 5, 2024 – Panama election
May 19, 2024 – Dominican Republic election
June 2024 – Mongolia election
June 6-9, 2024 - EU Parliament Elections
July 7, 2024 – Mexico election
July 15 - 18, 2024 - Republican National Convention
August 19 - 22, 2024 - Democratic Convention, Chicago
October 27, 2024 – Uruguay election
October 2024 – Mozambique election
October 2024 – Chad election
November 2024 – Guinea Bissau election
November 2024 – Moldova election
November 2024 – Romania election
November 5, 2024 – United States of America election
November 12, 2024 – Palau election
December 2024 – Croatia election
TBD – Algeria election
TBD – Austria election
TBD – Belgium election
TBD – Botswana election
TBD – Burkina Faso election
TBD – Chad election
TBD – Comoros election
TBD – Croatia election
TBD – Dominica election
TBD – Egypt election
TBD – Ethiopia election
TBD – Georgia election
TBD – Ghana election
TBD – Iceland election
TBD – India election
TBD – Iran election
TBD – Jordan election
TBD – Kiribati election
TBD – Kuwait election
TBD – Lithuania election
TBD – Madagascar election
TBD – Mauritania election
TBD – Mauritius election
TBD – Montenegro election
TBD – North Korea election
TBD – North Macedonia election
TBD – Romania election
TBD – Rwanda election
TBD – San Marino election
TBD – Slovakia election
TBD – South Africa election
TBD – South Sudan election
TBD – Syria election
TBD – Tunisia election
TBD – United States of America election
TBD – Uzbekistan election
TBD – Venezuela election