How twiddling enshittifies your brain: They preferentially mess with the stuff you rely on the most.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114932562818208027

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Hey look at this

* There’s a Far Cheaper Way to Do Rooftop Solar https://prospect.org/environment/2025-07-28-far-cheaper-way-to-do-rooftop-solar/

* The South Park thing https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/07/the-south-park-thing/

* A billion people would be plenty to sustain civilisation https://crookedtimber.org/2025/07/27/a-billion-people-would-be-plenty-to-sustain-civilisation/

* VHS tape with a built-in digital mp4 video player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYrY3nFrsho (h/t Yanko Design)

* BVH 522232323434 https://chrisbathgate.blogspot.com/2025/07/bvh-522232323434.html

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#20yrsago Canada bans copying CDs to iPods https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2005/07/crias-higher-risk-strategy/

#20yrsago No taking pix of San Fran building from the sidewalk? https://thomashawk.com/2005/07/one-bush.html

#20yrsago Microsoft “Genuine Advantage” cracked in 24h: window.g_sDisableWGACheck=’all’ https://web.archive.org/web/20050810083151/http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24961

#20yrsago Costikyan’s jeremiad against the video game industry https://web.archive.org/web/20050730021700/http://www.costik.com/weblog/2005_07_01_blogchive.html#112254986073206098

#20yrsago Economics of used books https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/technology/reading-between-the-lines-of-used-book-sales.html

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#20yrsago My Adbusters sf story https://craphound.com/stories/2000/08/06/the-rebranding-of-billy-bailey/

#20yrsago Richard Branson claims to own all uses of “virgin” https://web.archive.org/web/20051030080223/http://www.chillingeffects.org/weather.cgi?WeatherID=507

#20yrsago Security researcher quits job and blows whistle on Cisco’s fatal flaws https://web.archive.org/web/20060426162432/http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11259

#20yrsago File-sharers buy more music than non-swappers http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4718249.stm

#15yrsago Bisson’s Fire on the Mountain: alternate history in which John Brown wins at Harper’s Ferry https://memex.craphound.com/2010/07/27/bissons-fire-on-the-mountain-alternate-history-in-which-john-brown-wins-at-harpers-ferry/

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#15yrsago Inception‘s musical secret https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVkQ0C4qDvM

#15yrsago Shark Knife will terrify your enemies with macho impracticality https://web.archive.org/web/20100724002534/https://www.sadanduseless.com/image.php?n=293

#10yrsago Satanic Temple required protesters to pledge their souls to Satan as condition of entry https://web.archive.org/web/20150728003106/http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/07/26/to-weed-out-protesters-at-last-nights-event-the-satanic-temple-had-attendees-transfer-their-souls-to-satan/

#5yrsago Quick, inaccurate, cheap covid tests https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/28/afterland/#pick-one

#5yrsago Swarov.se https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/28/afterland/#goatse

#5yrsago Police "unions" are not unions https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/28/afterland/#selective-solidarity

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#5yrsago Constitution Illustrated https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/27/ip/#r-sikoryak

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Saturday's threads: Iranian brickwork, arbitrated pillows, smothered comics, and aerogel desalination; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114920968512589834

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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

--

My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

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My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

https://craphound.com/shop/

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Upcoming appearances:

* #SanDiego: ACM Collective Intelligence keynote, Aug 5
https://ci.acm.org/2025/speakers/cory-doctorow/

* #DC: Enshittification at Politics and Prose, Oct 8
https://politics-prose.com/cory-doctorow-10825

* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25

* #NewOrleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25

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