Lisa Schmeiser

If you took a time machine back to the 1990s and said, "Guess how Flavor Flav is leading the nation in 2026," nobody would believe you. I am, however, delighted by this.

FLAVOR FLAV ⏰@flavorflav.bsky.social

Thursday is a paid holiday. Because Flavor Flav said so.

I feel like we need a graphic to illustrate how time moves differently depending on your income level, gender and skin color, if we're to believe a 53-year-old man is apparently capable of "youthful indiscretion."

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social

So hard to pick a favorite part of this article. Pretending that sending unsolicited dick pics at 53 was a “youthful indiscretion” is good, but don’t sleep on the argument that his wife forgave him for subjecting other women to unwanted nude photos so everyone else should too

Hey, let's not conflate "hard work" with "good work."

Lisa Schmeiser reposted

Anil Dash

@anildash.com

Replying to @anildash.com

We're seeing it right now in tech; a number of prominent tech commentators (all coincidentally happen to be wealthy & influential white men? huh!) have all just endorsed returning to Twitter again. But they weren't content to just _be there_ — they also insisted it's not a hostile environment.

nytimes.comCan Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s Former CEO, Help Fix A.I.’s Gender Problem?Marissa Mayer made her name as a pioneer at Google, then as chief executive at Yahoo. Now Mayer is entering the crowded marketplace for A.I. assistants — and hoping to draw in more women with a produc...

What I find interesting about the NYT piece on Dazzle & its CEO Marissa Mayer, a series: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

The opening anecdote — plus ones from other AI CEOs who begrudge planning children's birthday parties, reading to their kids — points to an endemic issue in the personal assistant marketplace: re-centering the "personal" part solely around the app user, and diminishing the value of connective labor.

6. So, to recap: We have a product meant to reinforce a gendered status quo (that people are already rejecting) and to reduce the connective labor that sustains meaningful relationships into a saleable data set that the end user has little to no transparency or control over. Cool, cool, cool.

What I find interesting about the NYT piece on Dazzle & its CEO Marissa Mayer, a series: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

wsj.comEssay | American Women Are Giving Up on MarriageMajor demographic shifts have put men and women on divergent paths. That’s left more women resigned to being single.

That this product is landing as an increasing number of American women are opting out of both hetero marriage and parenthood is kind of ironic, timing-wise. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...

5. Many of the quotes in the story aren't meant for Dazzle's prospective customers, but for Mayer's peers and/or potential investors. Her opening anecdote is basically boilerplate for the AI space. See also:

What I find interesting about the NYT piece on Dazzle & its CEO Marissa Mayer, a series: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

thecut.comThe Girlbossification of AIReese Witherspoon, Mel Robbins, and Sheryl Sandberg are telling women to use ChatGPT or get left behind.

3. We also see evidence of the "ladies, you don't want to be left out of AI!" FOMO pitch — a pitch that did not land when tried earlier this year. Pro tip: When anyone uses "girlboss" in 2026, it's not meant as a compliment. www.thecut.com/article/ai-g...

npr.orgWomen are earning more money. But they're still picking up a heavier load at homeA new Pew Research Center report finds that in opposite-sex marriages in the U.S., women's financial contributions have grown, but they're still doing a larger share of housework and caregiving.

4. The reason for Dazzle is an endorsement for the status quo of gendered labor imbalance in hetero marriages — identifying the household labor problem as predominantly female & positing that the only solution is to buy a product to endure the status quo. www.npr.org/2023/04/13/1...

What I find interesting about the NYT piece on Dazzle & its CEO Marissa Mayer, a series: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

2. Having the CEO of a company aimed at mothers dismiss the fourth trimester as a time to "watch soap operas and scrapbook at home" is a real choice for wooing a target user base in the weeds with the change in mental loads.

The framing of parental leave as hobby time — in defiance of scientific evidence of literal changes in cognitive performance for the parent — does not make the sales case for an AI assistant. After all, if caring for a newborn was so easy you had time for your stories, why would you need an AI?

What I find interesting about the NYT piece on Dazzle & its CEO Marissa Mayer, a series: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

The sales pitch is that Dazzle uses your photo roll as the dataset for training its AI and giving you customized responses. Which ... honestly doesn't seem much different from an Instagram feed. And there's no info on what the company can do with your data under the user agreement. Moving on ...

The other thing that occurs to me: a photo roll can be a collection of highlights and/or a way to take notes, but it's a dataset that is already highly biased & incomplete, and therefore probably not great for any sort of out-of-the-box suggestions. It's going to reinforce your biases.

What I find interesting about the NYT piece on Dazzle & its CEO Marissa Mayer, a series: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

wired.comMomfluencers Are Pitching AI as a Better ‘Coparent’ Than MenMoms are outsourcing tedious household tasks to ChatGPT and selling courses teaching others to do the same. Where are all the dads?

1. Dazzle is not the first product where the value proposition is "your AI assistant can do the mental labor of parenting for you." This is not novel. Wired covered it in June: www.wired.com/story/momflu... So the question is: What can Dazzle do *better*?

@philipmichaels.bsky.social

I am innately suspicious of any AI pitch that includes either of these two elements: 1 -- Your terrible husband is never going to make your life easier, so why not subscribe to this service that will? 2 -- Gendered FOMO

Lisa Schmeiser reposted

Philip Michaels

This Rumpole of the Bailey reboot sucks.

Ben Schwartz@benschwartz.bsky.social

In the Docky Wocky!

Y'all, I just want a union meeting where the DCC comes out and does "Thunderstruck."

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Lisa Schmeiser reposted

jen ramos-eisen

@jenramose.online

NEWS: the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders have unionized and the Cowboys have agreed to recognize the union

Sharing because this is such a common experience for Americans now — and it shows what happens as we systemically eliminate UX as a part of product/service design, then eliminate customer experience as part of the cost of doing business.

Christopher Moore@theauthorguy.bsky.social

Anyone have any informed insight on why EVERYFUCKINGTHING is being ridiculously difficult to use? I've just had to TRY to sign into MS WORD, four times, unsuccessfully, when I own 3 active, paid subscriptions or licenses. (And sign in info is maintained in a password manager.) Ditto,Disney & Netflix

customerexperiencedive.comBrands miss the mark on recovery after a poor customer service interactionThree in 10 consumers say the company took no action at all in response to their most recent poor customer service experience, a CCW Digital survey found.

As consumers, the question to ask: At what point do I just stop exchanging money with an entity flatly uninterested in serving me as a human customer? We've established most brands do not care to redress poor customer service: www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/brands-...

So I want to hear from you: When do you say, "Enough?" and stop engaging with a service, a store, a brand? Is it a crappy automated interaction that is the final straw, or a crappy human interaction? What makes you say, "Enough?" And as inflation continues to rise — will you say it more often?

Christopher Moore@theauthorguy.bsky.social

youtube.comMoney Can Be Exchanged For Goods and Services | The SimpsonsYouTube video by thecomputerdude24 TV & Movie Clips

The U.S. consumer economy had been, for years, positioned as one of the most direct ways to participate in public life. This participation relied on the simple premise that "money can be exchanged for goods and services," as Homer Simpson once explained. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A81D...

However, at this point, money is not being exchanged for any level of service. I don't blame anyone working at Walgreen's at 8 p.m. Corporations have put human employees in the unenviable position of being the last remaining means of interaction with an entity largely comprised of automated systems

Christopher Moore@theauthorguy.bsky.social

I am now on Cigna's website. At this point, the pharmacy clerk & I are working two separate automated systems in tandem to figure out which one has the error & whether it can be rectified. Turns out one automated system of Walgreen's doesn't speak to another. This is a nightmare for employees.

The upshot is that the "quick" QR-code appointment check-in required a customer's external technology, an actual human in the loop when they weren't supposed to be, a broken website & an internal broken customer database — taking 30 minutes to solve. There's a bigger observation here.

Christopher Moore@theauthorguy.bsky.social

Here's a real-world example: Last night, I took my family for our flu and Covid boosters at Walgreen's. I was directed to a QR code to complete check-in online so as not to waste any human's time. Fine — except for some reason, the check-in wouldn't recognize any birthdate after the year 2000.

people.comAmy Acton’s Stepfather Was Charged with Raping Her When She Was a Child. Now Her Ohio Election Opponent Is Using That Against HerAmy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor in Ohio, has previously publicly discussed being sexually abused by her stepfather between the ages of 9 and 12. Her opponent Vivek Ramaswamy recently ...

So I'm stuck in a dead end, we have to manually check in, and my daughter — born after 2000 — has to be logged as a "walk-in" appointment. Which is where we hit automated snag #2: despite this kid being in the system & picking up monthly meds, Walgreen's is now saying she's not covered by insurance.

Lisa Schmeiser reposted

Kevin M. Kruse

@kevinmkruse.bsky.social

It's bleak that Serious News Outlets will tie themselves into knots writing headlines that obscure the horrors of a story while @people.com just waltzes in and calls it like it is.

Lisa Schmeiser reposted

Jason Snell

@snell.zone

On Nov. 11 come to Porter Square Books and see @dmoren.com interviewed… by me! in person!… as a part of the launch of his new book, ETERNITY'S TOMB. It will probably have some strong Six Colors energy, but about books.

portersquarebooks.comDan Moren, author of Eternity's Tomb, in conversation with Jason Snell

Hear me out: Jack Lowden as the next James Bond BUT only if Daniel Craig takes over as River Cartwright and *nobody except Roddy notices.* An entire season where Craig is just hamming it up as the slowest of the slow horses, Roddy is shrieking, "We all see this, right? and nobody acknowledges it.

nymag.comThe 75-Year-Old ScreenagersSeniors are spending more time than ever on their slop-filled, scam-riddled feeds. It has become their adult children’s job to save them.

So one of the things that stands out for me in this article: as a lot of people age, they get isolated b/c we as a society are not set up for multigenerational living in either private or public spaces. nymag.com/intelligence...

This is on a continuum — you see a lot of parents getting radicalized online b/c they're finding a sense of community from MAHA they don't see in real life. Why wouldn't folks who are isolated from the work-centric rhythms of daily life, who are past childrearing, also try to alleviate loneliness?

theatlantic.comThe Rise of the IRL InfluencerAmericans need to party more. A new class of “community builders” is ready to help.

I don't think the answer is to turn to real-life influencers who get sponsored to set up in-person meetups. But I do hope sociologists are looking at the structural reasons social feeds fulfill something people clearly feel like they need & aren't getting. www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

I generally like my Apple News subscription but if I had one complaint, it's that I do not have the option to treat a publication's op-ed desk as an opt-in. In other words: love to read some newspapers' reported coverage, hate to see their opinions and editorials in the feed.

instagram.comInstagramCreate an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

I had reason to be in Willits, CA, on Saturday, and I cannot stop thinking about this pie shop I went to. If you're in Mendocino County, get over to Kemmy's Pies. They offer exquisite bite-sized pies, mini-pies and full pies, and the crust is exquisite. www.instagram.com/kemmyspies/?...

Lisa Schmeiser reposted

Nieman Lab

@niemanlab.org

“Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.” buff.ly/4Rr4YCj

buff.lyChristiane Amanpour announces she will leave CNN next June | CNN BusinessCNN legend Christiane Amanpour, the network’s chief international anchor, said Monday that she will sign off from CNN next June.

Lisa Schmeiser reposted

Haymarket Books

@haymarketbooks.org

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry began on October 16, 1859.

To be fair, most Americans don't CARE that the USA is a global laggard on paid parental leave, healthcare for all, educational spending, public transit, or most major United Nations declarations and treaties. Embrace of EVs is just one more thing to throw on the "Progress? I don't know her" pile.

mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social

I don't think most Americans understand yet what a global laggard the USA is turning into here. Media instead told us that electric vehicles were a fad that didn't work.

scientificamerican.comWhy Election Polling Has Become Less ReliableElection polls are increasingly vulnerable to huge mistakes

It is handy to revisit this 2024 Scientific American article on why election polling is no long what it used to be, and recall that little has changed: www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

Lisa Schmeiser reposted

Cynthia Brumfield

@metacurity.com

Check out my latest CSO piece on how bad security practices and not agents with minds of their own cause those "rogue" AI hacking incidents. AI agents aren’t ‘going rogue.’ Frontier labs are skipping security basics. 1/2 www.csoonline.com/article/4234...

csoonline.comAI agents aren’t ‘going rogue.’ Frontier labs are skipping security basics.Cyber experts say AI labs’ containment and monitoring failures — not agents with minds of their own — are to blame for recent alarming hacking reports. CISOs should vet their AI vendors and tighten se...

cbc.caRobot controlled by 2 men gropes teen girl in Germany. Police call it 'new territory' | CBC NewsGerman authorities opened an investigation into possible sexual harassment after a robot controlled by two young men touched the buttocks of a 16-year-old girl and made thrusting movements toward her,...

Thanks, I hate it! www.cbc.ca/news/world/g...

youtube.comRADIO GISCARD | Episode #04 | 1 Hour of French Library Music | 70's Cinematic GroovesYouTube video by RADIO GISCARD

Am streaming this and my workday has suddenly taken on the earth-toned insouciance of a 1970s movie about a woman who spends all day typing, drinking coffee, and thinking about Claude Lévi-Strauss's structuralist theory of mythology. A++, recommend: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gPJ...

I honestly never realized I was weird; I had my peers TELLING me, repeatedly, starting in elementary school.

Gail Simone@gailsimone.bsky.social

QUESTION OF THE DAY: This sounds like a joke question, but it isn’t. If it doesn’t apply to you, fine. But it’s a serious question with different levels of meaning. And I am genuinely curious. When did you first realize you were weird?

eastbaytimes.comRecently chilly Bay Area about to get warm again

Hotober always makes a real dramatic exit a week or two before Halloween.

East Bay Times@eastbaytimes.com

The National Weather Service said the oncoming heat wave won’t be as intense as most recent one.

“Will this Safeway line ever move?”: The Eternal Bay Area Query

Seriously, this is my workday now, with young King Dingus constantly begging for minnows.