Boosted by @hypebot@goingdark.social
Tip: If you cannot locate an email address for customer service for a company, open the Terms of Service, search for (press ctrl+F) "@". Almost always, you can find an email address in there.
Remote
jilleduffy
@jilleduffy@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Writer covering work, women in midlife, some tech. Author of The Everything Guide to Remote Work. Global citizen; currently near the Mekong. Pro worker stance. (she/her)
0 Followers
0 Following
49 Posts
Joined October 28, 2022
My free newsletter about life abroad:
My website:
My WIRED author bio page:
I'm still a little miffed that when an actual worldwide pandemic came, the bunker people didn't go into their bunkers
Instead they demanded haircuts and tickets to the cinema
The acronym POS will never ever
mean "point of sale" to me
Boosted by @kims@mas.to
The Delight of a Breast Reduction
One of my favorite things about being a writer is exploring topics that I have no real connection to personally. Here, I became interested in data showing more than half of all breast reductions happen on women over 40, and I wondered why.
Let me share a few things that didn't make it into the article!
Also, no paywall 😜
https://hellogloria.com/essays/the-delight-of-a-breast-reduction/
"much token usage, or ‘chewing,’ is not from supercharged engineers creating lots of code, but people converting PDFs into presentation slides."
In other words, AI doing "grunt work" is too expensive. You cannot make this up.
https://www.404media.co/companies-are-throttling-employees-ai-use-because-its-too-expensive/
Replying to
I used to have a co-worker who told me he created passwords by picking a word he could not spell and using it, in combination with numbers and symbols.
This is a good trick, I guess, if you want to learn to spell "ophthalmology" or if you want to get locked out of your password manager.
Open question:
Say a loved one dies and you want to look up information about how to get access to their online accounts and non-physical belongings, like digital photos. What kinds of words or phrases would you enter into a search?
Or if you use AI for search, how would you phrase the question?
If you run a website, check that your copyright footer says 2026.
I see outdated ones all the time, and it always makes me wonder whether the person is keeping up their site
Do you ever listen to a podcast about movies and suddenly realize you have no idea who a major actor is?
Like, you've heard the name a thousand times, but you cannot imagine their face or voice?
Sorry, Vin Diesel
Replying to
I also love that she has absolutely no social media presence, as far as I could find. Her publisher links to a supposed Facebook page that doesn't exist
Reminds me of Mary Roach's social presence. She built one when her most recent book came out, made a few posts during book tour, then abandoned it
What's real? What's not real? What's being pumped up by foreign actors? Does a pumping up even really matter if the issue is true? This is honestly so confusing
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-data-centers.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wlA.2J54.HqMHfuvSeUxd&smid=url-share
We may have a winner for Shittiest Announcement to Fire Employees
https://www.coinbase.com/blog/building-a-leaner-and-faster-coinbase
Replying to
Mass layoffs really picked up momentum in the 1990s. If you read the popular business books of the time, many of them were basically in defense of layoffs. The absolutely awful Who Moved My Cheese? comes to mind.
It's only in the last 10 years that companies have been firing people by email or instant message and locking people out of their company-issued devices, which is the height of disrespect in terms of firing practices
Replying to
The "getting your work done" and "not leaving your immediately coworkers in a lurch" are essential components to this
I did work with someone who was very obviously ditching work to, I don't know, probably snowboard for hours every day, but he didn't get any work done and everyone knew it. The team resented him. He was also mean. Point being: Get your work done and then go live your life. However you make that happen is fine (assuming the job doesn't ask for an unreasonable work load)
Replying to
@craignicol@glasgow.social @GlasWolf@mastodon.scot @Nickiquote@mstdn.social Americans saying the Canadians have it so special with their healthcare, and the Canadians be like, "We fought so hard for that, you dummies! You could do it, too!"
Replying to
@Amoshias@esq.social I went a step further and interviewed the chief lawyer who worked on the state law in place in 48 of the US states. And then I talked to another trust and probate lawyer who spends time explaining the law and giving recommendations. But even they both admitted that the biggest pain point is lack of knowledge and education about what people can do and what laws can help them.
Replying to
@Amoshias@esq.social I still want to know what kinds of words a normal person would use if they were looking for answers. Sometimes the mismatch is in the wording.
For example, the word "probate" would never ever come to my mind naturally. (I used it previously here only because that's how the lawyer described what she did.) But I would think about "inheritance" perhaps.
Interesting design, and it's true about the ear being a good, steady source for HR via the skin, but aren't we all just so over "innovative" wearables? Give me a watch or give me nothing
Teach the kids this when they're age-appropriate
Replying to
Likewise, I reply to a *lot* of messages I get from readers, and I usually open with, "Thank you for taking the time to read my work and to write to me." Truly, thank you for taking that time. It is meaningful to the recipient.
Replying to
The construction is simple (used to + root verb), but the concept is surprisingly hard to explain.
I remember learning the equivalent in Spanish (solía que...) and understanding quickly since English has a direct translation. But it was tricky for some of my students!
"It's something that you did many times in the past, but you no longer do," I said, though it also works for things that were continuous but no longer are ("I used to be a little girl"). I'm excited to keep working on this one
One of America's leading tech writers, Geoffrey Fowler, has announced he's leaving the newsroom to start the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media
https://geoffreyfowler.substack.com/p/what-is-ai-doing-to-our-kids-im-going
Replying to
LOL! Who are these people making up these numbers?
"a 2024 report by HTF Market Intelligence found the worldwide sector is worth more than $690bn (£544bn) and is forecast to grow by another $400bn (£315bn) between 2024 and 2028."
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/what-is-sleep-tourism-and-why-is-it-on-the-rise
CBS's lawyers wouldn't allow Stephen Colbert to air an interview w Texas Rep James Talarico. So he recorded one anyway & put it on YouTube
Talarico is the same person who was interviewed on The View that prompted the FCC to investigate The View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ7Pz_59A
Colbert DID air a segment explaining why he couldn't broadcast an interview w Talarico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh7DPSP65JA
Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature
Replying to
@Gargron@mastodon.social Thank you for your service to this community, and I appreciate your honest words in your decision to step down
Replying to
@TransitBiker Wow! I would love to hear more stories about and from people who bugged out, bunkered down, and battened their hatches. Totally heard no stories of this kind before!
Replying to
@roknrol@beige.party That's really it, isn't it? It's like, "Well, we HAVE a ton of money, but we want more, so..."
Replying to
@JustinDerrick@mstdn.ca Yeah, I have considered the local backup method, which is good for a number of reasons, not just in case of death or incapacitation.
What it doesn't address is shutting down online accounts. Say I want my Instagram account terminated after I'm dead. Nor does it address collecting future assets--like say a website, blog, or social media account that pays dividends. A local backup also doesn't have access to new, incoming email or other messages.
It's really a huge undertaking!
Replying to
@JustinDerrick@mstdn.ca That's actually kind of frightening from a security perspective 😬
Currently working on 3 stories.
🤖 One is about using AI for job applications
👙 One is about breast reduction surgery
🤑 One is about inheritance of digital assets
I can't tell you how nervous I am that I'll look at the wrong question list during an interview with a source
Replying to
@benjamineskola@hachyderm.io Exactly!
English is hard. It is my first language, and I still have so many memories of learning spelling, rules of capitalization, grammar that I thought were ridiculous! But it is my favorite language
Replying to
@dustin Eileen is an amazing book. Let me know if you want trigger warnings, although it's best to go into the book knowing nothing.
The novel she wrote after that, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, is my favorite novel ever