Today's links
- Eviction is over (if we want it): The Big Bag of Money Method.
- This day in history: 2001, 2020
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Author: Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: 31 Aug 2021
Today's links
- Inequality, not gerontocracy: Who killed interest rates?
- Monopoly power and political corruption: Starve the (corporate) beast, shrink it until it fits in a bathtub.
- This day in history: 2006, 2020
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 30 Aug 2021
Today's links
- India's 'toxic' ed-tech giant: How Byju's hard-sells desperate parents into taking out predatory loans for their kids' education.
- Podcasting "Utilities and Empires" and "FB's War on Switching Costs": A twofer from EFF's Deeplinks blog, on this week's podcast.
- This day in history: 2001, 2011, 2016, 2020
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Twitter Arguments
A theory of change
The kind of activism I do has a serious structural barrier: it’s esoteric. Even today, tech-policy issues are extremely niche. Indeed, tech-policy is a niche within a niche —most people have little technical knowledge and most people have little policy expertise, and the stuff I do requires that you have some of both.
Pluralistic: 28 Aug 2021
Today's links
- The "work ethic" is a dirty trick we play on ourselves: Rationalizing away the pointlessness and indignity of low-waged work.
- Facebook's war on switching costs: Network effects attract users, switching costs take them hostage.
- This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2020.
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 26 Aug 2021
Today's links
- Vaccinate workers at (almost) any price: Corporate America sabotaged paid vaccination leave.
- This day in history: 2001, 2011, 2020
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 25 Aug 2021
Today's links
- Big Box stores' other shoe drops: Lowe's is a parasite that is killing its host.
- Belarusian dictator pwned by "cyber-partisans": When a secretive autocrat has no more secrets.
- This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2020
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 24 Aug 2021
Today's links
- Are privacy and antitrust on a collision course?: Harmful dominance, democratic privacy controls, interop and illegitimate greatness.
- This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Pluralistic: 23 Aug 2021
Today's links
- Podcasting "Disneyland at a stroll": Winding up my series on "amusement parks, crowd control, and load-balancing" (for now).
- The Unraveling: Ben Rosenbaum's stunning debut novel.
- What kind of emergency is our emergency?: Kim Stanley Robinson on the structure of feeling of this perilous moment.
- The secrets of hospital bills: What do you call a "market" where no one chooses the services or knows the prices?
- This day in history: None
- Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Raiders of the lost ARC
Arts and crafts and authorship.
I have screen-burn. Before the pandemic, I spent an unhealthy amount of my time sitting in front of laptop, in ways that were harmful to my posture and eyesight and mental health — but now, nineteen months in a lockdown where my laptop is also how I get groceries, see friends, attend meetings and “travel” to conferences, I am heartily sick of it.
I switch it up. I take walks (though fewer now that I did at the lockdown’s start, alas), I make short trips to shops (masked and anxious), I’ve even been to a small, out-of-town conference where masks and proof of vaccination were required.