This is an excerpt from Ruined by Design, a book about design ethics and activism. You can find out more about it here. In 1944, the CIA (or technically, the OSS, its precursor) published one of the greatest design manuals of all time, and by far my personal favorite. The…

If your work helps spread lies and reelect racists, your kids might want some answers — On March 14, 2018, millions of students across the United States, across all grades, walked out of their classrooms for the March For Our Lives. This was specifically in response to the Parkland High School massacre, where 17 kids were murdered, but also generally about the country’s inability to address…

How to use centuries of unfair advantage to make the world a more equal place — Welcome back, gentlemen. Last year’s guide to white men in tech was one of the most popular articles on this platform, so I’m excited about this year’s. We assume the popularity was for several reasons: The title had a number in it, it was addressed to white men, it was…

You have the right to make a living—but not on the backs of others — “That’s not a good look,” came the reply. “What’s not a good look?” I asked. “Shaming workers.” This was in response to a tweet I sent out a few weeks ago, pointing out some new horrible Facebook behavior. (There are many of these tweets to choose from in my feed…

What we need to do to get this industry back on track — Hey Mike, Will you please just write something positive before this year is out? — My editor The promise of the internet was that it was going to give voice to the voiceless, visibility to the invisible, and power to the powerless. That’s what originally excited me about it. And…

We have to combine hope with a plan to make progress on solving our problems — Hey Mike, We’ve been behaving so badly that I hope the government comes in and regulates us. — Anonymous Facebook Employee Dear Designer, The first car I remember my father driving was a 1973 Plymouth Gran Fury. It was midnight blue. Big as a boat. You could easily fit four…

How to know when it’s time to move on to another opportunity — Dear Mike, How do you know when it’s time to leave a job? Dear Designer, You’ll have a number of jobs during your career. Some will be good. Some will be bad. Most will oscillate wildly between those two poles. But the one thing all those jobs will have in…

To support the coming wave of organized labor in tech, unions need to modernize and learn to communicate with this vast workforce — Dear Mike, I’m a union organizer. In the last few months we’ve started getting a lot of calls from workers in the tech industry looking to unionize. We don’t have a lot of experience talking to tech people. A few of them said they were contacting us because of an…

If you’re being ignored or mistreated at work, it might be time to organize — Dear Mike, I work at a big social network. Our bosses are doing some shady shit the employees aren’t happy with. Not only do they go against our values, but I think they may actually be detrimental to society. We’ve tried talking to them about it, but we feel powerless…