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Christian

@christian.bsky.social
3.2K followers 1.1K following 2.6K posts

Action research. Research design. Cybersystemic org dev. Complex adaptive systems. Indirect action. Information architect at heart. Hopeful. 📍 Seattle or Maine 🪪 caj.io 🌐 @ecosystemaction.com 💼 @strategytheory.com & @opsops.com

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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 16/10/2026
i love how the Flighty app and then the Delta app—like 30 seconds later—send me a push notification telling me I’ve landed, as if the Delta app deserves a participation trophy and my phone’s battery life isn’t a precious commodity while traveling
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
not about to debate anyone but happy to have a conversation. looks like i have some reading to do
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
now i have to move my stash
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Karen VH @designinginward.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
hey friends, a little reminder that I'm available for part time freelance UX/product work. Discovery, research, strategy, ops. I have been told I am a goddamn delight to work with and I will make you some amazing custom playlists.
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
have you explored Autonomous Agency Theory? we can model system-level agency using AAT, based on viable system theory, similar to how the viable system model can be used to describe or assess organizational structures. really demystifies where transduction vs different parts of the stack operate
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
🐙
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
glossary uses PDSes atproto.com/guides/gloss...
atproto.com
Glossary of terms - AT Protocol
A collection of terminology used in the AT Protocol and their definitions.
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
big news! congrats to all involved. i look forward to migrating from luma
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Kay Coghill, PhD. @drkalyncoghill.blacksky.team · 09/09/2026
@marisa.blacksky.team is starting data collection for their dissertation! Run it up! #academicsky
Research Participants
NEEDED
PhD research studying the work and lives of tech workers and finance professionals in the United States.
ELIGIBILITY:
Software engineers
Data science/analysts
Private equity associates & analysts
Investment banking associates & analysts
PROCEDURE:
Introduction
Send an email with your Linkedin or CV, and availability
Interviews
60-90 minutes, in-person (preferred) or via Zoom
RESEARCHER
Marisa Rando is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Cambridge
GET IN TOUCH:
mmr59@cam.ac.uk
www.linkedin.com/in/marisarando
SUPERVISED BY: University of Cambridge
INTERVIEWS HELD
NYC: SEPT - DEC 2026
SF: JAN - MARCH 2027
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Do you have to pay to install Orion? I pay to support them, but assumed it’s open source and free to install by anyone (i may be wrong!). It’s good, and full of bugs. But still my daily
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
What would you want to experience or express with a tone indicator?
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
technocracy?
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Rudy Fraser @rude1.blacksky.team · 02/09/2026
@blackskyweb.xyz is building an interconnected suite of products reshaping how people connect, participate, organize, and transact online. We’re looking for a Head of Design to lead and shape how our products and brands look, feel, and work. please circulate widely. blackskyweb.xyz/about/jobs/h...
blackskyweb.xyz
Head of Design
Product, brand, and visual identity About Blacksky Algorithms Blacksky Algorithms is building an interconnected suite of products reshaping how people connect, participate, organize, and transact onli...
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
🫠
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Ironic considering how he wrote so fervently about the need for open access and open science
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Currently rereading …
Designing Freedom by Stafford Beer
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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Highly recommend "Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals: Cooperative Alternatives Beyond Markets and States" by Derek Wall from @plutopress.bsky.social . "Central to Ostrom’s work was the move ‘beyond panaceas’; transforming institutions to widen participation…" #WomenInEcon #Economics
plutobooks.com
Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals - Pluto Press
An introduction to the groundbreaking ideas of the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Check out @linkedtrust.us and linkedclaims.us. The work they're doing looks promising!
linkedclaims.us
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Because I see climate crisis going around today, I turned our recent relevant newsletter issue into a handy blog post. I went around on the title and landed on the thing I wanted to get into everyone's head. What to do instead? Read the blog. www.muledesign.com/blog/stop-ra...
muledesign.com
Stop Raising Awareness — Mule Design
Raising awareness might be the worst thing you can do
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
that’s good to hear. deleting. a transit worker told me the other thing
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Your voice is a light, Hà. I for one would love to follow your posts wherever you feel comfortable sharing your thinking. If that’s in another virtual third space, or another modality, I totally get it. (I will say I personally have a hard time with TikTok, but love the idea of short form video)
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Jasmine Otto @jazztap.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Inspired by @kissane.myatproto.social's announcement and @tessa.germnetwork.com's community building.
critical.leaflet.pub
Holding space for each other
Every builder is advancing a critique of the hellscape we're currently in. Everyone who's building a community is pathbreaking Another Way that things could be.
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rish @rishkebab.blacksky.team · 29/07/2026
Excited to announce that I'm a speaker in MIT Media Lab's upcoming AHA Seminar Series! I'll be presenting on @blackskyweb.xyz's moderation and how we are navigating the nuances around automated content moderation that is community-governed
media.mit.edu
AHA Seminar Series: Rishi Balakrishnan | Who Moderates? Community Control of Automated Content Moderation – MIT Media Lab
Join us for our online seminar series event hosted by MIT Media Lab's Advancing Humans with AI (AHA) research program! This event features Rishi…
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
(btw i power cycle it by turning off/on my desk surge protector. i don’t think there’s actually a power button.)
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
have you tried turning it off and then on again? serious question. i’ve had a ts4 since it came out. i semi-regularly need to power cycle it to fix the same symptoms.
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Interesting paper by @rutgerclaassen.bsky.social about the genealogy of the corporation H/t @the-syllabus.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
The corporation—a return to origins? - Rutger Claassen, 2026
This paper contributes to contemporary debates in political theory about the power of business corporations by offering a genealogy of the corporation through t...
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
significantly faster and less buggy on ios in my experience as well
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Apropos kaseyklimes.com/blog/english...
kaseyklimes.com
English isn't a programming language (yet)
If English is a programming language, then why isn't your codebase in English?
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Love what kasey is doing at Primitive for product and engineering team coordination. Got a lil preview some time ago and lemme tell ya, you can see kasey’s multidisciplinary research background and care for craft shining through
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
it always was meme dot png
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Subvert @subvert.fm · 07/07/2026
Our first Annual General Meeting is set for September 19, 2026. This is the co-op’s main moment for collective decision-making. Read in full on our blog here: www.subvert.fm/blog/subvert... RSVP at luma.com/subvert2026 Not a member? Join the co-op at subvert.fm
luma.com
Subvert Annual General Meeting 2026 · Luma
Join Subvert's first (online) Annual General Meeting. This is our cooperative's hallmark annual event. A preview of our AGM Agenda: State of Subvert: A…
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
ah, yes. monday.
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Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · 17/07/2026
We need 2-3 more writers with a science-y backgrounds to help us turn news chaos into orderly information on @unbreaking.org's infectious disease control, food safety, and medical research funding pages. The commitment is a few hours every couple of weeks. Is this you? 🌱 unbreaking.org/how-to-help/
unbreaking.org
How to help — Unbreaking
Documenting damage and resistance. Unflooding the zone.
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
i like to think of authenticated transfer as an application layer protocol and protocol suite for internet accounts. i would not put a number on it. i think what i was getting at in conversation about it is that we all have different mental models. atproto contains multitudes :p
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JD (by way of Blacksky) @jdot.blacksky.team · 16/07/2026
Hey everyone, I spent the last three years as a Trust and Safety professional researching traditional social media and decided to put words to my thoughts. I hope you find my findings enjoyable or intriguing.
whatshappeningonmyfeed.leaflet.pub
Traditional Social Media as a Prison
Social media apps have become a vehicle for community building, world news, and political campaigns. As app owners have enmeshed themselves more with the state, the carceral logics that haunt marginalized communities offline, became a part of their digital realities online.
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
might be interesting to compare notes with @hyl.st? 👀
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
they give a red card.
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
These design patterns live rent free in my head bsky.app/profile/chri...
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Oh exciting! The Nokia N9, the 2011 phone running MeeGo Harmattan that inspired the Jolla project is my fav handheld device design by far. Designed by @moi-a.bsky.social and written about by @cityofsound.bsky.social in this evergreen Domus piece www.domusweb.it/en/design/20...
domusweb.it
Portable cathedrals
In the first article of a new series on the design of everyday technology, interaction designer Dan Hill reviews the Nokia N9 and asks: will it be enough to revive the declining fortunes of the Finnis...
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
For any new followers, here is why I avoid "UX". hashtag vonnegutmaxxing www.muledesign.com/blog/triple-...
muledesign.com
Thinking in Triplicate — Mule Design
To align design and business, visualize the shared narratives
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
How is it?
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
My fav browser rn is Orion, based on Safari’s Webkit(!). I semi-regularly need to use “Compatibility Mode” to get it to work with things, and sometimes it’s entirely unpredictable, especially with Google products. There are usability quirks, but it such a fun take on browser UX it gives me hope
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JD (by way of Blacksky) @jdot.blacksky.team · 02/07/2026
Hey everyone! I’m starting a monthly blog about trends in moderation from Blacksky’s Trust and Safety team called: “What’s Happening on My Feed?” The first post: “Putting the Trust back in Trust and Safety” is out now, check it out: whatshappeningonmyfeed.leaflet.pub/3mpont6fedc2z
whatshappeningonmyfeed.leaflet.pub
Putting the Trust back in Trust and Safety
Moderation events in June 2026
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kat excellence ✨ @katexcellence.io · 28/06/2026
coming back to this after some post-sangha clarity we had a discussion today about how our experiences shape the lenses through which we view the world and how the most neutral of data will be interpreted differently because of our unique filters
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
it hot
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Stellar job description. Incredible team.
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Christian @christian.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
indirect action is a way
Strategy Without Design: The Silent Efficacy of Indirect Action. Robert C.H. Chia and Robin HoltPaperback Re-issue
Strategy exhibits a pervasive commitment to the belief that the best approach to adopt in dealing with affairs of the world is to confront, overcome and subjugate things to conform to our will, control and eventual mastery. Performance is about sustaining distinctiveness.
This direct and deliberate approach draws inspiration from ancient Greek roots and has become orthodoxy. Yet there are downsides.
This book shows why. Using examples from the world of business, economics, military strategy, politics and philosophy, it argues that success may inadvertently emerge from the everyday coping actions of a multitude of individuals, none of whom intended to contribute to any preconceived design. A consequence of this claim is that a paradox exists in strategic interventions, one that no strategist can afford to ignore. The more single-mindedly a strategic goal is sought, the more likely such calculated instrumental action eventually works to undermine its own initial success.
Cover illustration: Helvoetsluys: Ships Going out to Sea, 1832 (oil on canvas), by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). © Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
Cover designed by Hart McLeod
CAMBRIDGEContents:

Preface
page ix
Introduction

Reaching for the ground

The dangers of deliberate planning

Take care of the pennies...: strategy from the 'bottom up'
10
Strategy through self-cultivation
12
The limits of designed strategic intervention
16
The world is not nice
20
Rediscovering strategy without design
22


Spontaneous order: the roots of strategy emergence
25
Heraclitus, Lao Tzu and the ever-changing world order
29
The Scottish Enlightenment
31
Bastiat and the seen/unseen orders
35
Carl Menger and the phenomenon of money
38
Friedrich Hayek and 'spontaneous order'
39
Open source
47
Complexity, emergence and self-organization
51


2 Economic agency and steps to ecological awareness
57
The observer and the observed
59
Agency and methodological individualism
60
Entitative thinking and the 'fallacy of misplaced

concreteness'
64
Economic agency
68
The dangers of decontextualized thinking
73
The credit crisis, 2008
79
The case of UBS
83
Towards 'system wisdom'
88


3 Reconceptualizing agency, self-interest and purposive action
91
Human agency revisited

True and false individualism
99
Porms of knowledge: episteme, techne and phronesis
105
From purposeful to purposive action
108
96
vContents (continued)

The 'practice turn' in strategy research
112

Henn Bergson and intuition
113

Duration, process and creativity
115

Process and practice in strategy research
118

Weak individualism and the primacy of social practices
122

The practice turn and the documenting of strategy-in-practice
129

5 Building and dwelling: two ways of understanding

strategy
133

Building and dwelling
134

Engaging with the world
139

Dwelling and the Gothic sensibility
143

Heidegger revisited
150

Expressing thought
154
6
Strategy as 'wayfinding'
159

Strategic positioning and navigation
160

Knowing as we go: mapping, map-making

and map-using
164

The Phillips machine
168

The active nature of perception

Graeme Obree: the case of a bricoleur
170
173

Wayfinding the Google way
179
7
The silent efficacy of indirect action
186

Direct and indirect approaches to strategy
186

The downsides of spectacular strategic interventions
190

Méris as spontaneous indirect action
The strategy of indirectness
192

Towards a strategic blandness
197

201

Epilogue: Negative capability
209
Notes
213
Index
243
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Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 15/06/2026
networksofny2026.bigcartel.com/product/netw... hi, did you like my book Networks of New York when it came out in 2016? you might like the updated 2026 edition which I'll be releasing in September and you can pre-order now
networksofny2026.bigcartel.com
Networks of New York, 2026 Edition (PRE-ORDER)
SHIPPING SEPTEMBER 2026! Networks of New York is a book by me, Ingrid Burrington. It helps readers identify indicators of physical internet and telecommunications infrastructure in New York City. Usin...
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Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
In celebration, I'm sharing a new piece of evidence from the book every day, and how it helps us understand our minds and build more thriving, joyful communities in technology ❤️ Find THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOFTWARE TEAMS where you like to buy books: www.drcathicks.com#book
drcathicks.com
Dr. Cat Hicks
Leading teams that put science behind software team success
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Bryan (they/them) @chaosgreml.in · 14/06/2026
1) preorder her book! bookshop.org/p/books/the-... ⬇️
bookshop.org
The Psychology of Software Teams
Check out The Psychology of Software Teams - <p>To build the future, we need new ways of supporting software teams. This book will give you a secret weapon: the psychology that creates resilience for ...
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