There was a time when I tied my worth as a person to the quality & quantity of maps that I made & shared. But through the years it grew into a toxic obsession & madness. So friends & I had to remind myself that my life is larger than my work. I stopped mapping for a while. :)

But why do we have to sell who we are just to get the bare minimum? The current ideologies, systems, institutions, & practices (neoliberal capitalism, lack of welfare systems, very short contracts, hustling, etc.) prey on precarious workers like me & create conditions like mine.

Then I got a longer contract (a 3-year PhD scholarship) with time to slow down, realise these, & feel confident enough to not work on nights & weekends, for example. For many years, I had 3-month contracts. Constant precarity limits our imagination & damages mental health.

So take a step back & look at the bigger picture. Information systems today depend on precarious workers like you & me. I'm sure that plutocrats++ are using the pandemic to further inequalities again. Hackathons, etc., asking for free labour for "innovation" & other buzzwords.

Let's call BS on initiatives that frame problems in terms of buzzwords like open, sustainable, innovation, resilience, smart, agile, etc., but sidestep equity and justice. For example, I have witnessed how "resilience" was used by powers to plunge even more people in poverty.

So, care and organise! Our geospatial collective, the @mappingministry is going through this journey towards equity and justice in geospatial work. I hope you can be with us in this adventure. :)