Sign in

Nick

@dfmanufracture.bsky.social
252 followers 83 following 70 posts

I write about engineering and communism. designformanufracture.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This holds true even where they argue he over-distinguishes and over-abstracts. Of course they'd say that, it's because they ignore the parts where those differences are fleshed out. I'll grant that Phil's writing can throw people who aren't used to the style, but it's certainly all there
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I already said I think the bulk of their misunderstandings stem from the aforementioned one. This includes what they (mis)understand Hellworld to be doing vs what it claims to do. Of course they think he failed, they've oversimplified his core concepts in order to paint them as far too simple
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
In which Andy, Sean, and I discuss my new @htwvmag.bsky.social essay about the capitalist distribution of technical expertise and its transformation during the process of communist construction. There is also lighthearted banter and even some jokes.
011
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Regardless, I think his reply (which I only just saw) captures the root of the misunderstandings comprehensively.
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
They misinterpret what constitutes "tactics" for Phil in a way that leaves him no room to go "beyond tactics" but imo is not actually an issue because he actually formulates tactics differently than how they portray him as doing. Did you read Hellworld?
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The bulk of their misinterpretations are built upon this fundamental one imo. It reads like a critique of a milieu they decided Phil is representative of even though what they're critiquing just doesn't map onto what Phil has written. The "father Neel" stuff also comes off as poor faith (ha)
110
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This distinction exists even as far back as Hinterland, but is spelled out very explicitly in the texts they cite. Phil's discussion of the Sudanese sequence, for ex, can't possibly be interpreted as positing street fighting as the sole avenue of politics. WMC is quite clear about this too imo
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I don't know what you mean by the very last line. But ultimately I think what they call his "tactical fetishism" completely ignores all the ways he explicitly articulates "tactics" as being far more than only street fighting and the necessity of going "beyond" that.
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This is unfortunately a very poor faith critique. In attacking a misrepresentation of Phil's work, they wind up reconstructing similar conclusions to what he was actually saying. This gives me the impression they stopped reading every cited text half way through or something.
150
Reposted by Nick
the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
from 2001. no one’s doing product testimonials like this anymore. t.co/PEswCtbEZz
Toyota's unease at being associated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda is evident. In its September statement, the company said,
'Toyota does not have a sales or distribution channel in Afghanistan, and we do not export vehicles to that country."
Somewhat less laconic was Wade Hoyt, Toyota's spokesman in New York, who put the best corporate spin on the situation this week.
"It is not our proudest product placement," he said. "But it shows that the Taliban are looking for the same qualities as any truck buyer: durability and reliability."
362709433
Reposted by Nick
ceej @ceej.online · 29/09/2026
Mr. President.... China, they.... it's bad. They just announced Ultra Intelligence
271123118
Reposted by Nick
Heatwave Magazine @htwvmag.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Communist imagination must balance a utopian and scientific tension, particularly for matters of technology and industry. @dfmanufracture.bsky.social discusses, among other topics, "The Black Box of Production" from Heatwave Issue 3 on Komintern Podcast (@kominternpodd.bsky.social) Links below!
Komintern podcast profile picture. It includes a bust of Karl Marx floating above a city, with the words Komintern (revolutionar pratradio)
164
Reposted by Nick
Kominternpodd @kominternpodd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And for any non-swedish readers of @dfmanufracture.bsky.social - episode out now! On utopianism, history, science fiction and production with writer and engineer Nick Chavez and Per Henriksson from the now defunct theoretical collective riff-faff.
032
Reposted by Nick
Emily St. James @emilystjams.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
They're also almost always about women and queer people in left-leaning spaces, which says whom we reflexively think of as toxic or annoying. I guarantee some fantasy football league is falling apart over some petty asshole, but he doesn't become a symbol for the annoying left. He can just be Jeff.
301445210
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Translation: WARNING THIS MAN IS DANGEROUS! HE IS AN ENGINEER. HE HAS BEEN TAUGHT EVERYTHING ABOUT TECHNOLOGY. BUT NOTHING OF SOCIETY Therefore he pollutes. Therefore he builds enviroments hostile to humans. Therefore he produces weapons and poisons. (h/t comrade at @kominternpodd.bsky.social )
02610
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
*author's usage of the term "Luddite," as per usual, misunderstands what Luddism actually was. But this doesn't detract from the overall argument.
010
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Salient reading* with implications for the current Navier-Stokes situation. Longer read but worth it. davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...
davidbessis.substack.com
The fall of the theorem economy
How AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it
132
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
030
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
This Schaxel translation (and the intro written by @damashummus.bsky.social ) absolutely rips. Absolute must-read essay on the mystification of "the individual" in the field of biology, a lesson with philosophical and political dimensions that remain more important than ever.
253
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Lichens are heroes of cosmopolitanism
042
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Imagine the cultural implications too: you could sublate gym-bro muscle heads and blue hair septum piercing vegans into one single intense subculture
010
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
If this had come out a few years ago I would have tried to find a way to work "meat lettuce" into Forest and Factory www.sciencealert.com/a-key-meat-p...
sciencealert.com
A Key Meat Protein Has Been Grown in Lettuce For The First Time
Eating meat is consistently shown to be one of the worst things we can do for the environment as consumers, due to the outsized negative impacts animal agriculture has on land, water and energy use, a...
130
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The best Xinjiang food I've eaten outside of China was at a small spot called Nurlan in Queens. It's immediately adjacent to the Queens botanical gardens. If you find yourself in that area I recommend grabbing a meal there.
110
Reposted by Nick
prada 丰 meinhof @prada-meinhof.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
“Les auteurs assument [...] un pari. Soumettre la fiction utopique aux contraintes de la hard SF et de la théorie anti-utopique pourrait « attirer des gens vers le projet révolutionnaire »...” www.en-attendant-nadeau.fr/2026/05/26/l... @editionssanssoleil.bsky.social @dfmanufracture.bsky.social
en-attendant-nadeau.fr
Fabrique et forêt. Science et fiction du communisme : Le communisme tangible - En attendant Nadeau
Phil A. Neel et Nick Chavez écrivent contre les imaginaires communistes qui contournent la production dans Fabrique et forêt. Science et fiction du communisme.
041
Reposted by Nick
prada 丰 meinhof @prada-meinhof.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
à propos de Fabrique et forêt. Science et fiction du communisme : “Le communisme ne peut donc pas être pensé comme un supplément moral appliqué à une infrastructure intacte ; il suppose une réappropriation simultanément sociale et technique des moyens de production existants.”
163
Reposted by Nick
Heatwave Magazine @htwvmag.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Read the Issue 3 editorial here: heatwavemag.info/magazine/iss...
heatwavemag.info
Editorial: On Communism, Drawing Lines, and Being Ecumenical | Heatwave
We attend to ecumenical practice not only because it is generative, but because difference is inevitable. Within fragmentation we must develop the capacity for cohesive communication and action.
032
Reposted by Nick
Ed @ed3d.net · 03/07/2026
this is a real problem for people who are programmers but don’t also do other things. do other things.
6706
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Read The Black Box of Production now: heatwavemag.info/magazine/iss...
heatwavemag.info
The Black Box of Production | Heatwave
The material world, made and re-made in the image of capital, looms large over humanity's future.
021
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
New essay on technical expertise, its occlusion to the majority of the human species, and the contours of its appropriation in any future project of communist construction. Read it online now, or in print in @htwvmag.bsky.social Issue 3 (link in reply below)
2126
Reposted by Nick
Heatwave Magazine @htwvmag.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Why does it feel so weird to talk about exercise and left politics? Want to get beyond the dichotomy of overly optimistic lifting for the rev and overly pessimistic rejection of all exercise as social domination?
152
Reposted by Nick
Dan "Mr. Bones and Me" Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Great new essay from @dfmanufracture.bsky.social on revolution and expertise
heatwavemag.info
The Black Box of Production | Heatwave
The material world, made and re-made in the image of capital, looms large over humanity's future.
2125
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Thanks Dan
110
Reposted by Nick
Heatwave Magazine @htwvmag.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
How are things made? Who knows how to make them? How is this knowledge distributed? @DFManufracture demystifies the riddle of technical knowledge and its relevance to communist construction in "The Black Box of Production," available on our website ahead of Issue 3 heatwavemag.info/magazine/iss...
1115
Reposted by Nick
Jamie Merchant @jamiemerchant.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
My review of Eswar Prasad's Doom Loop, a book that isn't very good but vividly shows how and why economists are thoroughly washed. www.thenation.com/article/cult...
thenation.com
Are Economists Going the Way of the Dinosaur?
In Eswar S. Prasad’s The Doom Loop, he attempts to defend a profession that failed to foresee the crisis of the post-liberal world.
072
Reposted by Nick
harryposeur.bsky.social @harryposeur.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
041
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Just found out about Peter Damerow. This guy was cooking wtf
030
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
You didn't, this only just got published! You're on the bleeding edge
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Those of you looking to read Forest and Factory in French can get a copy here www.hobo-diffusion.com/catalogue/97...
hobo-diffusion.com
Catalogue Fabrique et forêt
110
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
...and on Phil's substack here, which I highly recommend you subscribe to philneel.substack.com/p/the-immort...
philneel.substack.com
The Immortal Science: Preface to the French Translation of "Forest and Factory"
Advance Drafts #6
162
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
You can find it on my blog here: designformanufracture.com/2026/05/14/t...
designformanufracture.com
The Immortal Science: Preface to the French Translation of “Forest and Factory” – Design For Manufracture
131
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
New preface for Forest and Factory, titled "The Immortal Science," to inaugurate the French edition is available (in English) to read now. Links in replies. Special thanks to @editionssanssoleil.bsky.social for the translation and to my coauthor Phil Neel.
1138
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Those of you looking to read Forest and Factory in French can get a copy here www.hobo-diffusion.com/catalogue/97...
hobo-diffusion.com
Catalogue Fabrique et forêt
000
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
and on Phil's substack here, which I highly recommend you subscribe to philneel.substack.com/p/the-immort...
philneel.substack.com
The Immortal Science: Preface to the French Translation of "Forest and Factory"
Advance Drafts #6
100
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
You can find it on my blog here: designformanufracture.com/2026/05/14/t...
designformanufracture.com
The Immortal Science: Preface to the French Translation of “Forest and Factory” – Design For Manufracture
100
Reposted by Nick
Éditions Sans soleil @editionssanssoleil.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Disponible en librairie ! Fabrique et forêt. Phil A. Neel et Nick Chavez 128 pages 10 euros
051
Reposted by Nick
prada 丰 meinhof @prada-meinhof.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
le 7 mai en librairie @editionssanssoleil.bsky.social
052
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Don't remind me 😞
020
Reposted by Nick
Joel @snufkinlib.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
trying to play peekaboo with my child but he's a European diplomat: me: where'd daddy go? baby: we must articulate a post-daddy vision of strategic autonomy me: peekaboo! baby: my historic relationship with my father is stable despite recent troubles
1572441734
Nick @dfmanufracture.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming "Every Acre Every Factory" documentary from LabournetTV featuring a series of interviews including of yours truly
040