Cory DoctorowToday's threads (a thread)
Inside: Don't Be Evil; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/11/obvious-terrible-ideas/
1/
Don't Be Evil: Evil genius is just a lack of shame.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116386341327627838
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Hey look at this
* Apple signs meaningless deal to make some less-important parts in America https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/26/apple_expands_list_of_bits/
* Public Service Decline and Support for the Populist Right https://catherinedevries.eu/NHS.pdf
* Another Court Rules Copyright Can’t Stop People From Reading and Speaking the Law https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/another-court-rules-copyright-cant-stop-people-reading-and-speaking-law
* Yikes, Encryption’s Y2K Moment is Coming Years Early https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/yikes-encryptions-y2k-moment-coming-years-early
* Vertical Vertigo https://prospect.org/2026/04/10/apr-2026-magazine-vertical-vertigo-franchise-deregulation-antitrust-law/
3/
#25yrsago Trotsky’s assassination - according to the FBI https://web.archive.org/web/20010413212536/http://foia.fbi.gov/trotsky.htm
#25yrsago Online headline-writing guidelines from Jakob Nielsen https://memex.craphound.com/2001/04/09/headline-writing-guidelines-from-legendary-usability/
#25yrsago Floppy-disk stained-glass windows https://web.archive.org/web/20010607052511/http://www.acme.com/jef/crafts/bathroom_windows.html
#15yrsago English school principal announces zero tolerance for mismatched socks https://nationalpost.com/news/u-k-school-cracks-down-on-bad-manners
#1yrago EFF's lawsuit against DOGE will go forward https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/09/cases-and-controversy/#brocolli-haired-brownshirts
4/
Yesterday's threads: Canny Valley and Creative Commons; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116379961704317052
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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
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My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, 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."
7/
Upcoming appearances:
* #Toronto: DemocracyXchange, Apr 16
https://www.democracyxchange.org/news/cory-doctorow-to-open-dxc26-on-april-16
* #SanFrancisco: 2026 Berkeley Spring Forum on M&A and the Boardroom, Apr 23
https://www.theberkeleyforum.com/#agenda
* #London: Resisting Big Tech Empires (LSBU), Apr 25
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globaljusticenow/2042691
* #NYC: Enshittification at Commonweal Ventures, Apr 29
https://luma.com/ssgfvqz8
* #NYC: Techidemic with Sarah Jeong, Tochi Onyibuchi and Alia Dastagir (PEN World Voices), Apr 30
https://worldvoices.pen.org/event/techidemic/
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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow
* #Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow.html
* #HayOnWye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2
* SXSW #London, Jun 2
https://www.sxswlondon.com/session/how-big-tech-broke-the-internet-b3c4a901
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Recent appearances:
* The internet is getting worse (CBC The National)
https://youtu.be/dCVUCdg3Uqc?si=FMcA0EI_Mi13Lw-P
* Do you feel screwed over by big tech? (Ontario Today)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-45-ontario-today/clip/16203024-do-feel-screwed-big-tech
* Launch for Cindy's Cohn's "Privacy's Defender" (City Lights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuVCm2PUalU
* Chicken Mating Harnesses (This Week in Tech)
https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/1074
* The Virtual Jewel Box (U Utah)
https://tanner.utah.edu/podcast/enshittification-cory-doctorow-matthew-potolsky/
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11/
I'm also on Bluesky. Read today's thread there at:
https://bsky.app/profile/doctorow.pluralistic.net/post/3mj7xwnzhv22p
eof/
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) (@doctorow.pluralistic.net)
How I knew I was officially Old: I stopped being disoriented by the experience of meeting with grown-ass adults who wanted to thank me for the books of mine they'd read in their childhoods, which helped shape their lives. 1.
Germosch@pluralistic I am voting for an icon thingie meaning "Tron-pilled". Small and retro-style. I'd paste that in my profile pic or header pic ^-^
@pluralistic I'm seeing something like this. As Pixelart, for fitting in a corner, maybe more blue-ish? Let's see if my gross skills can whip something up when I find time with GIMP :P
#art #tronpilled #pixelart #graphicdesign
#art #tronpilled #pixelart #graphicdesign
Vrtxd@germosch @pluralistic Thanks for the inspiration, here's my contrib to the public domain
disgruntlefish
thegreekgeek
Count Buchla
@germosch @JoshuaACNewman @pluralistic Fine, here's a remix for the punchcard gen. I fight for the Tron pill dispenser users too ✊
@vrtxd @JoshuaACNewman @pluralistic @disgruntlefish @thegreekgeek @Cenbe @JoshuaACNewman @LauraJMG
Here's my take. As simple as I can make it. Um, I do *not* think the level of creativity is high enough for any form of copyright but, yeah, I hereby put it under WTFPL :P
#art #tronpilled #pixelart #graphicdesign #wtfpl
Here's my take. As simple as I can make it. Um, I do *not* think the level of creativity is high enough for any form of copyright but, yeah, I hereby put it under WTFPL :P
#art #tronpilled #pixelart #graphicdesign #wtfpl
Laura J Mixon
Cenbe@Cenbe @germosch @pluralistic Agreed, thanks for pointing that out. And this, if anything, should respond to user feedback! Also adjusted the colors here a bit. Is this revision better?
Daneel@vrtxd @pluralistic I recognize the shape from Tron Legacy. Love it. Still far too big to paste into the corner of my profile pic XD