Will Norman PLY

Teacher. Writer. Double Paralympian. Former GB & England blind footballer. World & European silver medallist. Curious. Charlatan. Living ‘against the day’

[Will Norman PLY @willnorman3]

@hashjenni Elvis Presley‘scolon on the 16th of August 1977

[Will Norman PLY @willnorman3]

@omgsidewalks God only knows by The Beach Boys

[Will Norman PLY @willnorman3]

@TheRealJamieKay ReformUK

[Will Norman PLY @willnorman3]

@TheRealJamieKay There’s always room for lemon drizzle

[Dr Jay Watts @Shrink_at_Large]

One of the grimmest political tricks of the last 15 years has been convincing the public that disabled people are a bigger economic threat than tax avoidance, private outsourcing failures, or housing costs.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

The capitalist obsession with rapid growth at all costs is literally the function of cancer cells.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

Explaining to children that they shouldn't worry about a career because the world will be completely unlivable in 15 years and that death will be a sweet relief from living in a nuclear wasteland is probably the hardest part of working at Build-A-Bear.

[Will Norman PLY @willnorman3]

@BlaiseInKC @Monica_Wilcox Grass is the same. Gross all over my patio but won’t grow on my lawn.

[Victor Okafor @TheVictorOkafor]

Steve Jobs refused to put a licence plate on his car and notoriously parked in the handicapped space at Apple.

Every single day. For years. Why? Because he simply decided the rules did not apply to him.

That petty, embarrassing smallness existed inside the same man who gave the world the iPhone, iPod, The Mac.

He abandoned his daughter Lisa for the first nine years of her life. Looked a DNA test in the face and told a court he was sterile to avoid paying child support.

The man who was obsessed with beautiful design couldn't find it in himself to embrace the beauty of fatherhood.

He cried many times to get what he wanted. Former Apple employees describe a man who weaponised emotions the way other people use logic. If the emotion didn't work, the humiliation started.

He told brilliant engineers their work was garbage. Not bad. Not close. Garbage. In front of rooms full of people.

He took credit for ideas that weren't his. This wasn't spin. His reality distortion field wasn't just something he switched on for others - he eventually turned it on himself.

When doctors found the tumour, he refused surgery for nine months. Tried fruit diets and spiritual healers while the cancer grew.

The same man who never accepted limitations from the world outside him couldn't accept a biological truth about his own body.

This is what boggles my mind:

Every single one of those flaws - the delusion, the cruelty, the messianic certainty that reality bends to will - was the same engine that built Apple from a garage into the most valuable company in human history. Same magic touch that made Pixar what it is.

He’d forever remain one of the GOATs in my books, but studying him exposes what has become a pattern as I’ve studied other greats - ALL our heroes were and are flawed humans.

Easily one of my favorite pages rn @StudyTheGreatz

[David__Osland @David__Osland]

Fortunately, Britain has a Bermuda-registered mass circulation newspaper owned by a French-domiciled billionaire, a television station owned by a Dubai hedge fund and a political party backed by a Thailand-based crypto tycoon to remind us of the importance of patriotism

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

I will never, NEVER understand how they managed to convince so many people that simply wanting everyone to be safe and to thrive, and for the planet to be healthy and protected, is somehow a radical point of view.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

In a capitalist society, the only people who rise to the very top are sociopaths and malignant narcissists. The system rewards the ability to not care.

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

So, I have a friend who works at the BBC.

Yesterday, they told me the Tony Blair Institute basically selected the entire panel for @bbcquestiontime — hence why there was no balance and it was essentially dangerous big tech propaganda. Loads of staff pissed off, but silenced.

[paul bassett davies @thewritertype]

Sorry to hear about Jeff Bezos's rocket exploding prematurely. A good technique to prevent that from happening is to try thinking about something you find totally unarousing or even repulsive, like giving workers a living wage or paying a fair share of taxes.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

Capitalism: If you don't like your job, you can just get a new one.

Me: Ok, I want a new job.

Capitalism: Oh sorry, it's the time every six years where the entire economy has to collapse so rich people can loot it. have you considered begging in the street for scraps?

[chl$ @chelsssseeeea]

I went down an insane rabbit hole last night watching walkthroughs of slums in India and Nigeria and I genuinely feel like it broke my brain a little. Because we’re over here debating AI replacing white collar jobs and optimizing morning routines and whether too much screen time is frying our dopamine receptors meanwhile there are literally hundreds of millions of people living in places with inconsistent or no electricity, open sewage, overcrowded housing, contaminated water, etc. Like full entire cities built out of pure survival.

And the scale is what’s really getting to me. Dharavi in Mumbai India has like 2 million people packed into around one square mile. That’s actually hard to even conceptualize if you grew up in suburban America where half the land is parking lots and Starbucks drive thrus.

Then you see places like Makoko in Lagos Africa where entire neighborhoods are built over raw sewage polluted water with basically no infrastructure and kids are swimming in it like it’s normal because to them it is normal.

What’s weird is it makes the AI revolution feel even more crazy. Because the gap between the developed world and huge parts of the planet already feels massive… and AI probably widens it way way way more before it closes it. The countries with stable infrastructure, education systems, capital, internet, etc. are about to accelerate even harder while other parts of the world are still trying to solve plumbing and reliable power... It really does feel like we’re living in different centuries simultaneously. Some people are using AI to automate entire workflows while other people are building homes out of sheet metal scraps over sewage water and somehow both realities exist at the exact same time on the same planet.

[Curtis Daly @CurtisDaly_]

Despite this, anti-immigrant sentiment has increased. Proof that it's a manufactured political issue.

[Warren Gunnels @GunnelsWarren]

Can't stop thinking about Elon Musk, the wealthiest man alive worth $828 billion, spending $290 million to elect Trump, becoming $563 billion richer since Trump was elected and ending humanitarian aid that will lead to the deaths of 4.5 million of the poorest kids on the planet.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

The most annoying thing about being human right now is knowing we already have the intelligence and resources to end world hunger, fight climate change, and cure cancer, but greed and billionaires keep millions suffering instead. The wasted human potential is heartbreaking.