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Sam Ladner

@sladner.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2.7K following 1.4K posts

Industry-based sociologist and adjunct professor. Future of work. Innovation. Strategic Foresight. Enterprise Software. Ethnography and qual methods. A few books. www.samladner.com

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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 10h
Congratulations, Justice Kavanaugh, for securing your pristine legacy! Kavanaugh Stops — Such a contribution! projects.propublica.org/american-cit...
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 20h
Also included were Sigmund Freud, Violet Bonham Carter (Helena’s bad ass Nan), and Peter Drucker(!). A list to be envied frankly. 2/2
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 20h
TIL about the so called Black Book, a list of arrestees, should the Nazi invasion of the UK be successful. Notable people including Neville “Appeasement” Chamberlain, and Noel Coward, who was against appeasement but was also gay as hell and possibly a spy 1/2 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bla...
en.wikipedia.org
The Black Book (list) - Wikipedia
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
Holy shit.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Well … yeah. Sadly.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
In other words, Watson and Crick just didn't invite her to the Potlach; she didn't get to participate in the credibility cycle. This is basically the problem with women in science: they don't get invited to the party 3/3
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Latour and Woolgar explain perfectly why Rosalind Franklin didn't get credit: the scientific game is one of the Potlach, they say: "Even scientists' publication strategies are manifestations of conformity to norms through participation in gift exchange" 2/3
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I happen to have just re-read Latour and Woolgar's Laboratory Life chap 5 on "cycles of credit" for a lecture Thurs. I have something to say about women working in science 1/3
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This is a crime against humanity. There's no other way to frame this.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I imagine there’s reasons for lack thereof eg lack of cycling infrastructure, moral panic over “fast” e-bikes
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
One of the highlights of NYC Climate Week was getting a ride through the city on Saul Griffith's new Lightfoot scooter. It's incredibly cool -- way more solid & stylish in person than I expected. I swear I took pictures but I can't find any of them so you'll have to trust me.
fastcompany.com
This new solar-powered scooter is unlike anything you've seen before
The Lightfoot scooter comes with two large solar panels so it doesn't have to plug in.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I am obsessed with micro mobility devices and this one is cool as hell.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Congratulations on this widely accepted and deeply transferable certification.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Leaving aside this is a puff piece for a moment, I see a man psychologically incapable of admitting he is angry— even though he is clearly angry.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This is what America is doing to children. It’s horrific.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This is a really sad story but also one of terrible policy. Florida is on track to eliminate property taxes for residents and gouge Canadian Snowbirds for the difference. Good luck without Canadians, Florida Man. www.cbc.ca/news/world/f...
cbc.ca
Florida weighs ditching property taxes and sticking Canadians with the bill | CBC News
Florida voters are weighing whether to scrap residential property taxes and the state's governor has a solution to that potentially huge revenue loss: tax Canadians more.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Agree. Also a good book. He had a lot of them!
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I read The Religion of Technology in my class with Dave in grad school. We had long conversations on the *gendered* nature of religion, which once had many women leaders. He also regaled getting fired from The Smithsonian for his installation "Boys and Their Toys."
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
RIP, Dave. You were a real one.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Why did OpenAI invite an outside team to review its safety, and then fire the employees who liaised with them? The effect of this? Employees will absolutely think twice before raising safety concerns. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
wsj.com
Exclusive | OpenAI Fires Researchers for Allegedly Sharing Information with AI Safety Group
The startup, in the throes of responding to rogue AI incidents, said three employees violated policies for handling sensitive company data.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This may sound charitable but…I see a bunch of miserable people. People who have no soul and no world. They are empty. They are monsters. I feel sorry for them.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Nailed it
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Alternatively, he has no theory of mind maybe because of alcoholism. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Social cognition in alcoholism: a link to prefrontal cortex dysfunction?
Aims  Alcoholism is associated with a range of cognitive deficits. These deficits might be explained by the ‘frontal lobe hypothesis’ which suggests a specific vulnerability of the prefrontal cortex ...
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I keep asking myself how is he not embarrassed, how could he be so cringe. The only answer I can come to is that he has no theory of mind, i.e., he is a psychopath.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If this person had a regular job, and a regular amount of money, their family would be calling medical professionals and possibly also financial professionals because this person is clearly going completely off the rails.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I can't believe I hadn't even thought of using AI as a READER. As a writer of 2 1/2 books (number three is in press!!!), I used zero AI in my writing. But as a reader...AI books? OMG never. WHY.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
When I think about the US treating Canada like an enemy, I’m reminded that David Foster Wallace saw this coming in Infinite Jest. Sure we don’t have Québécois assassins (afaik) but look at what he described
L a post-Soviet and -Jihad era when—somehow even worse—
there was no real Foreign Menace of any real unified potency to hate and fear, and the U.S. sort of turned on itself and its own philosophical fatigue and hideous redolent wastes with a spasm of panicked rage that in retrospect seems possible only in a time of geopolitical supremacy and consequent silence, the loss of any external Menace to hate and fear.
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Historically, you could see the same type of vaporization (albeit with a different narrative) is advertising, medicine, civil engineering and architecture, and of course “inventors.” There is a long line of self absorbed megalomaniacs.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I can think of worse ways to have spent most of my career, I’m sorry to say. More a testament to the awfulness of work in general. But I have also retired from Big Tech.
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 30/09/2026
The United States is deporting parents without their children, leaving babies behind in America, @caitlindickerson.bsky.social reports. She spoke with the parents who don’t know if they’ll see their kids again, and the caretakers left to watch the children: theatln.tc/j6Df5aTI
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There was a residential school near our house. It closed in the early 80s. One of the former students burned it down, rumor has it. It had some bad ghosts lemme tell you.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Well let’s just say… Sarah Connor and I have a lot in common.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Enter in the hapless workplace ethnographer who tells said software engineer that no, the medical assistant does not plan a “sprint” every two weeks, and yes, people really do sit at desks and answer phones.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Trump says Canada is "one of the worst countries in the world." The World:
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
As a Canadian, I am used to seeing informative news pieces. Shocked to see this from CNN.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Agree! Still very useful book
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We all know the old saying: “How does a journalist count?” A: 1,2…TREND!!!!
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Americans, this is your government. You may have not voted for this specifically, but it's being done in your name. The whole world is watching while your abuser in chief demands an apology for his abuse. www.ctvnews.ca/world/trumps...
ctvnews.ca
Trump says he expects Canada to apologize to U.S., agree to ‘fair’ trade deal
With just hours to go before his import bans on certain Canadian goods take effect, U.S. President Donald Trump says he thinks he can make a trade deal with Canada in the coming weeks.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Since 2022, not a single day goes by without my thinking about Kyiv. I walk around my city and I think of Kyiv. I go to the museum and I think about Kyiv. I go to the university and I think about Kyiv. This is Kyiv today.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
As a former Big Tech employee, i see this as partly true. Work inside tech companies is the same as every other large org— willful ignorance is part of the equation but also is extreme temporal compression. Time poverty makes everyone stupid but esp so with motivated reasoning.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sarah Connor is the hero we all need right now. There’s nothing inevitable about AI usage.
static.klipy.com
Sarah Connor's 'Wake Up' Call
ALT: Sarah Connor's 'Wake Up' Call
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is a beautiful building. Think of that today when you walk past your city’s beautiful buildings.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I mean boo hooooo poor billionaires but really, I mean it. They’re miserable.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Absolutely. I think about that’s a lot, how hard it would be to have authentic relationships
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
If being happy is contingent upon doing things like going for walks and cooking, then this explains the destructiveness of billionaires. They’re just terribly unhappy and therefore incorrigibly destructive. Being happy is a skill hard to develop when every self- destructive whim is indulged.
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This should be a scandal, yes. What are ordinary Germans doing about it? Are they “good Germans”?
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Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 25/09/2026
I see. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
nytimes.com
Netanyahu Said to Have Been Warned by Emirati Leader About Hamas Attack Before Oct. 7 (Gift Article)
The warning from the leader of the United Arab Emirates, which lacked specific details about the nature of an attack, never reached the chiefs of Israel’s security establishment, Israeli officials sai...
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Well, at least Lavrov looks terrible and walks with pain.
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FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tom Homan: They're gonna say I'm racist or a Nazi. I don't give a shit
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Sam Ladner @sladner.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Merit is determined by one’s peers, as is the case with the Soybean Board. But the Trump admin wouldn’t know anything about merit, now would it. www.reuters.com/world/americ...
reuters.com
Trump’s DEI purge reaches farm country? Women picked for soybean board all replaced by men
The Trump administration rejected all four women farmers chosen by their peers to represent them in an industry group called the United Soybean Board earlier this year, a rare intervention by the U.S....
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