Tech Care

Welcome to Tech Care 🌿 , where we explore what it means to build tech that cares, so that we can take care — of ourselves, our communities, and the world around us. Join us here:

🌿 Core Values

Our values are a product of our current and past moments in time. As such, they are subject to change and grow as we do. With this in mind, we’ll start with the following:

1. Self-care <> Community Care <> Structural Care. As illustrated beautifully in one of my favorite zines, self-care is incomplete without community and structural care. We should strive to expand our conversations beyond the dimension of the self, while also acknowledging that it is foundational in the larger project of care.

2. Building new products is not always the solution. As a technologist, product manager, and engineer-by-training, this was definitely a difficult pill for me to swallow at first. However, it is clear that the technological status quo, which enables everything from racist facial recognition software to oppressive policing technology, already actively perpetuates harm. As such, it’s important to ask ourselves:

   • How is tech currently being used harmfully? How can we mitigate these harms, and ultimately abolish these practices?

   • What existing products, tech or not, can we use to care — for self, community, and the world at-large?

   • What sorts of problems exist across the different levels of care, and is there space for community-led, tech solutions?

   • How can we empower ourselves and others to build tech that cares?

🌱 Theory of Change

To take care is to also take action. In order to bring the above core values to life, we’ll start with the following theory of change:

1. Center mutual aid. This is one of my favorite explanations of mutual aid that I find myself returning to often. For me, participating in mutual aid is to care at every level - the self, the community, and the structural. My goal is to use this newsletter to amplify existing mutual aid networks, match community support, and create future initiatives to support mutual aid in both time and capital. The motivation here is that to talk/write about care can only do so much — we have to be willing to do the work as well.

   • To start, here is a mutual aid network that a good friend of mine helps organize that I currently support, and plan to amplify in upcoming issues. If you want to learn more, you can check out their page here!

2. Create space for conversations of care. Getting clear on complex technologies, structural problems, and our own privilege, beliefs, and biases is an incredibly difficult process. With this newsletter, the goal is always to call in folks rather than call out. While calling out can be incredibly effective at times for public accountability, I’m personally of the camp that intimate conversations can’t always happen in 280 characters, or in the trenches of Facebook comment wars.

   • What this means: always feel free to reply via email or DM me on Twitter if you have questions for me, have suggestions for future issues, or just generally want to chat further. Moreover, writing and learning in public means that I will inevitably make mistakes as well — this is my invitation for you to call me in too!

3. Collaborate & co-create. My writing will mostly be drawn from my time in tech/product, my background in philosophy and computer science, and my political education and Buddhist spirituality practices. Not only do I not have all the answers, but I cannot have them all. As a result, I would love to collaborate on some future issues and/or co-create projects together. Definitely let me know if you’re interested!

👩🏻‍💻 About the Creator

I’m Michelle - lover of matcha lattes, the {✨ 🌱 🍵 🌿} emoji set and overusing emojis in general, and long summer nights spent chatting by the NYC skyline. By day, I work as a product manager building data privacy tools, and by night, I read and write about possible new worlds grounded in care. If you’re thinking about this too, I’d love to chat - feel free to DM me on Twitter!