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@cyberlyra@hachyderm.io
I have lived in the US for 23 years. This week I used the word "keener" at a meeting and someone interrupted me to ask what that was. I explained it's a Canadian word for someone who's just earnestly
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Sociology & Design Prof @PrincetonU; Science, Technology & Society; NASA teams; critical design; remote work. Co-editor MIT Infrastructures. Longtime data economy resistor incl. # mobileLinux ; data sovereignty; reproductive privacy. # Bettertech is possible if we build it! Progenitor of the # optout Experiments, the # cybercleanse - www.optoutproject.net - and co-Founder of # reclaimtech movement - www.reclaimcontrol.tech # nobot Cishet # ally # noTERF Unpinned posts delete after 2 weeks.
hachyderm.io
Sociology & Design Prof @PrincetonU; Science, Technology & Society; NASA teams; critical design; remote work. Co-editor MIT Infrastructures. Longtime data economy resistor incl. # mobileLinux ; data sovereignty; reproductive privacy. # Bettertech is possible if we build it! Progenitor of the # optout Experiments, the # cybercleanse - www.optoutproject.net - and co-Founder of # reclaimtech movement - www.reclaimcontrol.tech # nobot Cishet # ally # noTERF Unpinned posts delete after 2 weeks.
hachyderm.io
@cyberlyra@hachyderm.io
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Feb 15, 2026
Growing up, I was always called "a keener." For good or bad it was part of my identity. Maybe people here have persistently misunderstood me as ambitious when actually I just really, really, really like learning things. Maybe they don't understand why I'm not too strategic because I never thought it was winner takes all game. Maybe they'll read this and think it's dishonest and self-serving because that's all there can be.
But you can't afford to be a keener in this country because you will get belitted for it and passed by as a naif. If you genuininely just love working with people, or learning about stuff, or making things, because it brings you tremendous, expansive, loving pleasure, people figure there must be some reason why you're doing it, otherwise there's no reason to do it.
There is so much inequality, so much grasping, so much competition, so much of the time there is no place for keeners and the joyful, earnest, even clueless energy they bring. Small wonder even people I approach with earnesty think there must be something behind it, hopefully until they get to know me better.
I suspect there is a lot I have misunderstood about my students here too. I thought many of them loved learning and we had that in common. They do their assignments and speak politely to their profs and show up in office hours to ask questions. It looks like being a keener, on the surface, to another keener at least. Why wouldn't they want to geek out with me about things we care about?
But the majority of them know the game. They got to where they got to because they played it. They were the smartest and most culture crammed so they could be here and launch to a great career. They are adding items to their resumes that make them look shinier than the next person when it comes to the last job left on earth.
What a joyless form of learning and living that must be.
To be clear, that isn't everyone I've interacted with. But I am slowly re-appraising many of the interactions that I thought I understood (and others that I just never understood) from the vantage point that "keener" is not a type you can be here. And that means that for a vast majority of the people I interact with, I'm probably deeply, deeply misunderstood. 2/2
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