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Shawn Mahoney

@shawnmahoney.bsky.social
34 followers 24 following 11 posts

Veteran executive. Entrepreneur. Writer. President of HIFI + GCPI. Writing about power, institutions, business, culture, and the details people skip. substack.com/shawnmichaelmahoney

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Reposted by Shawn Mahoney
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 01/10/2026
Lethal injection has repeatedly been found to be “scientifically unsound, frequently torturous, and woefully unreliable”—and the method’s record is only getting worse, Elizabeth Bruenig writes.
bit.ly
A Terrible Way to Die, a Terrifying Way to Survive
America’s experiment with lethal injection has failed.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I just wrote a @normlorg.bsky.social letter: Tell Trump and Congress to End Prohibition. Write one here: norml.org/act/tell-the...
norml.org
Tell Trump and Congress To Deschedule Marijuana
Send your message now with a few quick clicks!
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
My son was studying institutions I watched being built. Then we went to DC9. Philip K. Dick, Telescreens, Nautics, and what we think we can see coming. The Things We Were Supposed to See Coming: shawnmichaelmahoney.substack.com/p/the-things...
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Reposted by Shawn Mahoney
Kate Hagen's House of Horrors 👻 @thathagengrrl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Meanwhile, Jane Doe dropped out of Cornell and was denied her request to get her tuition refunded so that she could transfer to a different college. She hence faced more severe consequences than most of the men who she alleges gang-raped her." www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
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Reposted by Shawn Mahoney
Jeremy Fassler @jfassler.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Katie Britt watching Eric Schmitt destroy his career, brought to you by Larry David.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Required Reading IV is live: “That’s Just How It Works Sometimes.” On Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, institutional promises, and the silence later mistaken for consent. Institutions can revise priorities. The person who carried the promise cannot revise the trust that was spent.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Required Reading now has a soundtrack. Required Reading | Pages & Grooves starts with the music from the first three essays and grows from here. Books, institutions, power, competence, failure, memory. 🎧
open.spotify.com
Required Reading | Pages & Grooves
Specifically curated for Required Reading Substack
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Institutions can revise priorities; the person who carried the promise cannot simply revise the trust that was spent. Required Reading IV: “That’s Just How It Works Sometimes” arrives early Thursday.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The motorcycle does not care where you went to college. Neither does any machine, craft, or system capable of telling you when you’re wrong. Required Reading III: competence, corporate theater, and reality shawnmichaelmahoney.substack.com/p/…
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Reposted by Shawn Mahoney
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 16/09/2026
Rarely do adults get to encounter silliness in social interactions—but a new play reminds us that this is a mistake, Lily Meyer writes.
bit.ly
In Praise of Adult Silliness
A new play reminds us of an ingredient that’s all too rare in grown-up life.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The form is correct. Reality remains uncooperative. James C. Scott, administrative certainty, local knowledge, and the systems that mistake legibility for competence. The second essay in Required Reading: substack.com/p/the-form-i... VERDICT: REQUIRED.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The machine may be obsolete, but the disclaimer remains fully operational (and the machine still works).
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Virginia Business covered my CCA testimony this week: give prospective licensees clarity before asking them to invest. Store size, siting rules and impact-license standards each require certainty, fairness and transparency.
virginiabusiness.com
State authority releases draft retail marijuana regulations - Virginia Business
Virginia regulators released draft rules for the state’s retail marijuana market, outlining licensing fees and other requirements.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Icons with Icons. They never go out of style.
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Shawn Mahoney @shawnmahoney.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I’ve spent a lot of my career around businesses, public institutions, operations, and the gap between how things are supposed to work and how they actually work. I’m writing more of those observations down now at Required Reading.
substack.com
Shawn Mahoney | Substack
Shawn Mahoney is President of The HIFI Room in Arlington, Virginia, and Gateway Concession of Presque Isle (GCPI) in Erie, Pennsylvania. He writes about business, government, institutions, culture, an...
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