@airspeedswift was just discussing with a friend how good the word itself is. And me telling him “I don’t even remember the case Cory wrote about it”; and then re-reading it and realizing I was using it differently.

I am afraid the word will take on a life of its own. All I can do is enjoy the debates over it now :-)

@Migueldeicaza @airspeedswift my understanding of enshittification is that it describes the three-phase process by which a middleman establishes a monopoly before ramping prices and cutting quality.

The canonical example is Amazon, who first provided a cheap deal to buyers so they'd only want to get their books from Amazon, then provided a compelling deal to suppliers so they'd only want to sell through Amazon, and finally, once they'd sown up the market, they were free to swindle everyone.

@Migueldeicaza @nicklockwood trouble is, like "woke”, it'll eventually degrade to “whatever I don't like”.

Tedious tweets about late stage capitalism not getting enough likes? Enshittification! Sad they got rid of the poof of smoke when removing things from the dock? Enshittification!

@airspeedswift @Migueldeicaza I think it does serve the valuable purpose of both giving a name to - and specific explanation for - the process by which virtually all successful startups become terrible in the end.

I think that's useful because it counters the perception that somehow this is something that sometimes *just happens* to a previously good company (like a bad CEO, or a private equity acquisition), as opposed to being designed into their growth arc from the very beginning.