Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Tech companies painting tunnels on the side of cliffs and declaring them the exclusive and inevitable path to innovation, revenue, the future, etc does not actually obligate the rest of us to slam ourselves face first into a rock wall. 031
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026When I write an essay trying to explore something complex and nuanced and I find myself at ~2k words there's a part of me that goes "oh shit, I need to shorten the hell out of this or no one will read it" and another part thinking that shortening the exploration of complex things is how we got here. 041
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 28/09/2026One of the ways that I know social media has gone terribly wrong in its design and incentives is that I encounter far more accounts that need to be blocked than ones that I would want to follow. 000
Reposted by Heather BryantTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026When the powerful playact powerlessness it is always a ploy to avoid accountability. 91318414
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Universities allowing or encouraging students to use consumer AI products for their coursework aren't creating future thinkers capable of critical evaluation and thoughtful application of AI technology, they're creating future customers of consumer AI platforms. 2339
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Hey, so a thing can't be both a democratizing force that eliminates gatekeeping AND something that people can be left behind from if they don't immediately become customers. Those are mutually exclusive traits... 010
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 15/08/2026It would cost less for us all to just take care of each other compared to what we're doing now. 051
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 13/08/2026That adding curse words to search queries in Pinterest removes the ads and reduces the AI posts fuckin delights me. 1177
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 12/08/2026I only have so many years. I only get to use so much of those years to experience the creative efforts of myself and others. There exists more genuine, authentic, human creativity than I could experience in 1,000 lifetimes. I have no interest in wasting the one lifetime I have on machine imitations. 060
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 06/08/2026We created a society where we have to have various pieces of personally identifying information in order to securely do basic life tasks such as interacting with the government, banking, commerce, etc and also haven't made it illegal across the board for that information to be sold. 021
Reposted by Heather BryantKate Manne @katemanne.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Generative AI is catnip to the men who miss female sycophants katemanne.substack.com/p/a-culture-...katemanne.substack.comA Culture Hooked on Generative AI is a Culture that Misses Female SycophantsAnd we have missed a central reason why AI is a feminist issue 18441157
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 30/07/2026"Publicly perform the doing of your work and post the evidence of your process to prove your authenticity" is basically peer-to-peer CAPTCHA and we should not encourage yet another vector by which people are encouraged to be divided and mistrustful while a small group of people benefit from it. 010
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Watching longtime writers and creators suddenly be like "I have to use AI to create graphics for my posts, I can't afford an artist" as if we never illustrated anything prior to 2022. Poor lil guys, forgot how to license images or source CC graphics. 000
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 20/07/2026The more insidious way that performance culture and AI contribute to a surveillance state is that individuals now expect other individuals to surveil, record, and provide footage of themselves to prove authenticity. 010
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 10/07/2026It's been a while since I've regularly coded anything and I've since gotten a new laptop which also meant setting up a dev environment from scratch and wow, that process is not any less annoying than I remember it. 030
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 17/06/2026One of the reasons to read more is that when you find yourself in a really, really dumb conversation, you are less likely to be the reason it's dumb. 130
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 11/06/2026One of the funnier varieties of Gen AI users are the ones who prompt something and then share it while proclaiming nothing like it has existed before and as soon as you look at it you know the person doesn't read books, watch movies, or look at art. 130
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Cough www.cnet.com/tech/service...cnet.comInstagram's AI Chatbot Gave Away a Bunch of Accounts to HackersMeta has since fixed the exploit, but it's yet another example of AI doing it worse than humans. 152
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 22/05/2026That modern life involves having to regularly create accounts to do basic things and then having to spend time almost daily protecting one or more of those accounts from data breaches, hackers, or the incompetence/greed of the platforms themselves is an indicator that we have failed as a species. 112
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 09/05/2026Before a new technology, system, or process becomes irreversibly entrenched in society is exactly when you are supposed to be the most critical, cautious, and circumspect about it. 230
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Being literate in AI and being a customer of consumer gen AI are two entirely different things and there are a lot of people urging everyone to become customers and calling it becoming literate. 29025
Reposted by Heather BryantCourtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 29/04/2026This is both evil and boring. 26651123
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 06/04/2026One of the reasons we have people swear an oath to uphold the duties of their position is because the Constitution is a rule book not an airbag, fire sprinkler, or autocorrect. It cannot automatically mitigate, stop, or fix anything. People have to actually take steps to enforce it. 110
Reposted by Heather BryantMichael Schulman @michaelschulman.bsky.social · 01/04/2026I don't need a summary of what's available online, in biographies, or even in my own notes. I need to comb through and find the great details, decide what interests ME. No, it's not efficient. It's slow and painstaking. But I don't believe in efficiency as an ultimate good, especially in writing. / 322533303
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 26/03/2026We're on track for a chaotic summer and fall weather season, intense heat waves that will result in massive fires, and a rough hurricane season. This year is ripe for an unpredictable mix of chaotic events that will make voting more difficult and stressful. Planning needs to include that too. 000
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 19/03/2026If a thing is so incredible and valuable because it eliminates the burden of people needing to skill up or get up to speed in order to do something, then it cannot also be a thing in which not using it right away would cause someone to be "left behind". Those are mutually exclusive characteristics. 041
Reposted by Heather BryantJason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 12/03/2026I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out: www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...404media.co'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting BackKenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back. 3563183016
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 12/03/2026We're not just in a subscription economy, we're in a subscription democracy. Some are getting a higher tier of benefits while the rest are locked into the basic plan we were signed up for at birth where the cost only ever rises and they keep removing benefits or turning them into premium add-ons. 1178
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 26/02/2026"Use AI or get left behind" is rugged individualism applied to technology. It's a fantasy that a person could be "good enough" with AI to not be affected by global shifts in labor and information. It's propaganda for individual survival over collective action on behalf of the collective welfare. 1227
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 16/02/2026Historical context for these jobs...one of the last people convicted for their role in the Holocaust was a secretary at a camp. She claimed as a secretary she wasn't responsible. She was found guilty because she could not deny that she knew what was actually happening. www.mlive.com/news/detroit...mlive.comICE buys Romulus detention facility, projects 1,458 jobs as local officials push backThe agency said the Romulus facility and its construction are expected to generate 1,458 jobs, nearly $150 million in economic activity and more than $33 million in projected tax revenue. 12515
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 12/02/2026I'm not worried about a future in which I'm left behind because I don't use certain technologies. I'm worried about a future in which everyone is expected to do even more than we already are and those things aren't actually useful, necessary, or good for us — individually or collectively. 092
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 08/02/2026It's wild to have 2 pro-AI people in the same article, one saying that authors need to use AI or get left behind AND the other saying if readers know a book is AI they won't read it. "Do the thing that your target customer will boycott you for if they know you are doing it." Wow. Great advice. 020
Reposted by Heather BryantSherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 30/01/2026The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist. 433245687901
Reposted by Heather BryantPhil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 30/01/2026Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning I was sent this video of agents at her door: 646133377100
Reposted by Heather BryantEvan Simko-Bednarski @simko-bednarski.bsky.social · 30/01/2026INBOX: @freedom.press on the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort 012
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 30/01/2026We've built a system in which the penalties and settlements for lying and cheating cost far less than what companies can make when they lie and cheat and then we act shocked that they lie and cheat. 051
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 27/01/2026If you can be manipulated by someone playing on your resentments of others, your desire to see others punished, your wish to see others denied things you don't think they deserve, your dislike of those not like you, your feelings of superiority, or your refusal to listen, learn, or understand... 100
Reposted by Heather BryantIn These Times @inthesetimes.com · 24/01/2026"We have to help people understand what is (the current, shared reality), we must collectively imagine what can be (a future possibility), & we have to diligently labor for what must be (organizing to sustain life/livingness & for liberation)." @prisonculture.bsky.social on how to move forward.inthesetimes.comRead This If You're New and Trying to Find Your WayAbolitionist organizer and author Mariame Kaba offers youth living through the current crises a renewed perspective on how to move forward. 014077
Reposted by Heather Bryant🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 21/01/2026Hee !Quote tweeting to plug @unbreaking.org is an information aid project tracking the ways the Trump administration is breaking reality . We provide sourced and cited thematic timelines to help people understand and take action without having to doomscroll or read 3837387 substacks 064
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 20/01/2026It's been far easier to diversify my fiction books than my nonfiction books and I think about the implications of that a lot because we need both diverse stories and diverse expertise and analysis. 040
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 04/01/2026I really hate that when my internet goes down these days my first instinct is to be suspicious, immediately check to see if I still have phone signal, and doing a quick double-check of headlines rather than just "that happens sometimes." 120
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 31/12/2025Her doing this and me scrolling social media are the same activity. 623628
Reposted by Heather Bryant🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 29/12/2025They want slavery . They want it. They want the the world slavery made and are trying to break it down to its coding parts and the people “fighting” them want the equivalent of benevolent overseer roles because they accept the premise 06422
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 25/12/2025I got the best gift from @nws.noaa.gov A blaring very early Christmas morning flash flood alert that ensured we woke up and checked conditions around us. Functioning public services that keep us all safer every day is exactly what I wanted. 0102
Reposted by Heather Bryantsoleil ho @soleilho.com · 15/12/2025it's taken me a while to put this together. but I hope, if you've never heard of her, or even if you have, this tribute to Alice Wong buoys your heart and gives you a good sense of who this incredible person was. www.coyotemedia.org/remembering-...coyotemedia.orgRemembering Alice WongOn the one-month anniversary of her passing, we honor the acclaimed disability justice advocate, writer, shit-talker, and friend to so many. 4566232
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 14/12/2025One of the extremely hard parts of dementia caregiving is that sometimes you can do absolutely everything you can to try to make sure they understand and remember an important decision and discuss and repeat it a a million times... 130
Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 14/12/2025I just want to buy a thing. If it's a good thing and the experience is good, I may want more things. That's it. I do not need and I definitely do not want this many touch points. 3112