Emma Weisman
NO GODS NO MASTERS NO PAYWALLS NO MANAGERS NO SCRUBS NO CLOSED BORDERS
Filter board:
Strategist Builder Bridge
Radical ideas &
unglamorous
execution.
Twenty years dreaming up better ways to serve — and twenty years putting them into action. Non-practicing attorney. Active believer in conviviality.
Not just for work —
think together.
Tear off a tab.
✂ · · · · · · · · · · ·
EXENE. DEBBIE. SIOUXSIE. & PATTI.
oakland / 2026
still standing
Work with me
Strategy. Governance. Hard problems in complex places.
Communitere Int'l — Executive Director
Burning Man Project — Director of Operations
Let's talk →
Upcoming
Burnal
Equinox
Mar 21 · Bay Area
✦ 26 ✦
The Guardian Oakland · Mar 2026
Port of Oakland, dusk.
Homicides Fall to 25-Year Low

Oakland recorded its lowest homicide rate since 1999 — a result of sustained community investment and targeted intervention programs that researchers say could serve as a national model. The city saw 67 homicides last year, down from a peak of 165 in 2012.

Q
Quote

"The most political decision you make is where you direct people's eyes."

— Wim Wenders
✦ July 2026 ✦
Fire in the
Mtns
Blackfeet Nation
Browning, MT
Jul 23–26
firemtns.org
firemtns.org
firemtns.org
firemtns.org
Recent Writing
"What attention actually costs"
Mar 2025 · 8 min
"Against productivity culture"
Jan 2025 · 11 min
"In defense of difficulty"
Nov 2024 · 7 min
→ all writing
ZettelkastenFeb 25
Ivan Illich on conviviality
Burning Man's 10 Principles
Both describe tools that serve people — not the other way around.

still here,
still building.


USA
Oakland CA
Mar 2026
Thought

Is it ageist that the gerontocracy is one of my least favorite -ocracies?

New York Times Jan 2026
An Unlikely Source of Crypto Innovation: Afghanistan
How a country frozen out of global finance became an unexpected laboratory for decentralized currency.

In a country where banks are inaccessible and international transfers nearly impossible, traders turned to cryptocurrency not as speculation but as basic infrastructure. What followed is a system experts now study as a model.

Inside the site
The board is the entry point. These are the rooms.
Writing
All essays →
"What attention actually costs"
Mar 2025
"Against productivity culture"
Jan 2025
"In defense of difficulty"
Nov 2024
"A year of only translated fiction"
Oct 2024
Reading
Full log →
Native Nations
Kathleen DuVal
★★★★
The Reindeer People
Piers Vitebsky
★★★★★
Cobalt Red
Siddarth Kara
★★★★
Bad Feminist
Roxane Gay
★★★★★
Facilitation & Change Support
People, projects, programs
Organizational Design
Governance, decision-making
Network Strategy & Design
Across industries + borders
Strategic Planning
Pragmatic, human-centered
"Every governance model is also an argument about human nature."
"Sila in Greenlandic means both weather and consciousness."
Ivan Illich on conviviality → Burning Man's 10 Principles