Fragments :: Tags

The blog posts in my self-imposed writing-every-day challenge for 2019, categorised by tag.

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advertising

Influencer marketing is a scourge, exhibit A - May 14. Kylie Jenner recently announced a product in her new skincare line that might actually hurt your skin.
Building a better billboard - Apr 16. Advertising technology solutions tend to optimise for the world as it is, not the world as it should be.
The rise of the Instagram influencer - Mar 28. And what it says about our economic system.
On advertising fraud and RuneScape's bot economy - Feb 13. What the prevalence of advertising fraud tells us about the business models of platforms like Google & Facebook, and why advertising is core to capitalism as a whole.
Selling shovels - Feb 4. On Silicon Valley and the new California Gold Rush.
The Super Bowl - Feb 3. The 53rd Super Bowl took place today, in the Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, in an exciting display of ads interpersed with a bit of football.
An ad on every surface - Feb 2. The logical endpoint of capitalism is a world where every inch of existence is both commodified and contains an advertisement for something else.
The platform wars: Silicon Valley's Great Houses - Jan 30. Today in tech news: Apple fires a warning shot at Facebook for violating its app store policies. And the wheel keeps spinning.
Tech workers and journalists, unite? - Jan 28. Google and Facebook didn't cause the demise of journalism, but they are hastening it, and hurting journalists in the process. But it doesn't have to be this way.
The overnight test - Jan 11. On Linds Reddings' 2012 blog post 'A Short Lesson in Perspective', which reflects on his 30 years in the advertising industry and concludes that it wasn't worth it.

batman

There's a storm coming - Jan 17. The 2008 financial crisis showed us what happens when your models are incomplete. Tech companies have a similar problem, but with class struggle.
When you live long enough to become the villain - Jan 13. Tech startups may start out with good intentions, but the process of gaining wealth and power comes with existential risks.

big-tech

Is losing an investment like losing a limb? - May 8. Nassim Nicholas Taleb seems to think so.
Customer happiness isn't enough - Apr 28. The typical goal of antitrust enforcement is to ensure better outcomes for consumers. But customer happiness is not the most important factor when it comes to tech companies.
When is a company a 'tech' company? - Apr 19. And why does it matter?
On YouTube's engagement-driven recommendations - Apr 3. Reflections on today's Bloomberg piece about YouTube's unwillingness to stop recommending toxic videos in order to preserve high 'engagement'.
Rent-seeking as a service - Mar 27. The geniuses of Silicon Valley have become the thing they fear the most: tax collectors.
What it means to 'abolish Silicon Valley' - Feb 17. Fleshing out the catchphrase that began as a Twitter joke but has since become part of my larger political project.
On advertising fraud and RuneScape's bot economy - Feb 13. What the prevalence of advertising fraud tells us about the business models of platforms like Google & Facebook, and why advertising is core to capitalism as a whole.
The platform wars: Silicon Valley's Great Houses - Jan 30. Today in tech news: Apple fires a warning shot at Facebook for violating its app store policies. And the wheel keeps spinning.
The Lucas Plan & Silicon Valley - Jan 29. In the 1970s, workers at Lucas Aerospace came up with a plan to repurpose the company's equipment to build more socially useful products, while also bringing it under worker control.
Tech workers and journalists, unite? - Jan 28. Google and Facebook didn't cause the demise of journalism, but they are hastening it, and hurting journalists in the process. But it doesn't have to be this way.
Making kings out of startup founders - Jan 27. The legitimating myth of Silicon Valley suggests that successful entrepreneurs deserve their untold wealth because they created value for which they should be rewarded.
Capital knows who the enemy is - Jan 24. Labour is often confused about where its class interests lie. But capital never forgets.
The world's richest couple - Jan 19. Sure, MacKenzie Bezos should get half of Jeff Bezos' Amazon stock. But in an ideal world, that would be worth nothing.
There's a storm coming - Jan 17. The 2008 financial crisis showed us what happens when your models are incomplete. Tech companies have a similar problem, but with class struggle.

career-advice

So you want to do a masters degree on inequality - Jan 14. Advice for anyone considering doing a masters degree on the topic of inequality.
The overnight test - Jan 11. On Linds Reddings' 2012 blog post 'A Short Lesson in Perspective', which reflects on his 30 years in the advertising industry and concludes that it wasn't worth it.
Take the job, but organise - Jan 10. Have the option to work in tech, but concerned about the ethics of the industry? There's a solution for that: organise.

class-struggle

Minimum wage is livable - May 22. A series of tweets responding to the claim that minimum wage is livable if you cut out, well, most of the things that make life worth living.
Workplace surveillance - Apr 7. Workplace surveillance is more than merely an issue of privacy. It's about power, and control, and deepening a relation of class domination.
Lyft is the best capitalism has to offer - Mar 25. Boots Riley's 2018 film 'Sorry To Bother You' is not just a piece of speculative fiction - it depicts a dystopian future that's already here.
How to avoid the misappropriation of unions - Mar 24. An illustrated guide for those concerned that they're too privileged to join a union.
If you have a boss, you need a union - Mar 21. Kickstarter employees are trying to unionise, but some senior staff are claiming that a union doesn't make sense because they're too 'privileged'.
Corn: the source of all value? - Mar 10. What does it mean to say 'labour is the source of all value'? Why does Marx promote the labour theory of value, when a 'corn theory of value' would be just as mathematically valid?
Capitalism and freedom - Mar 6. Why do free market ideologues think capitalism is the best way to achieve freedom, and how should the left respond?
Class denialism - Mar 3. The grand delusion of modern-day liberalism is that it denies the existence of distinct economic classes, instead opting to pretend that we're all in it together.
Capitalism, empathy, and punishment - Feb 23. Capital has many weapons at its disposal, but it takes a profound lack of empathy to actually pull the trigger.
Without their permission - Feb 22. Startup founders love to flout the rules, assuming it's best to ask for forgiveness, not permission. But they're not breaking the rules for the right cause.
I was marching - Feb 21. On Meridel Le Sueur's celebrated essay of the same name, about her experiences during the Minneapolis truck drivers' strike of 1934.
Gatekeeping in the tech industry - Feb 19. On the 'computer priesthood', negative solidarity, and the story of a hit man who kills other hit men so he can make more money.
What it means to 'abolish Silicon Valley' - Feb 17. Fleshing out the catchphrase that began as a Twitter joke but has since become part of my larger political project.
'Old people' are not the problem - Feb 16. Generational war is a poor substitute for class war, because it misdiagnoses the cause of the problem.
Operation Barbarossa - Feb 15. Fleshing out a (possibly tenuous) parallel between capital's relationship to labour & Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
When your opponent plays defect every time - Feb 14. Mainstream US politics is a great illustration of how not to solve the prisoner's dilemma.
When a tip is not a tip - Feb 12. On DoorDash's institutionalised tip theft policy, and how that undermines the implicit contract that gives it legitimacy.
People of wealth - Feb 11. On Howard Schultz's recent suggestion to refer to billionaires as 'people of wealth' instead.
When everyone else is an NPC - Feb 10. On Dynasty Warriors, and the political implications of treating other people like NPCs.
Exploding the contradictions - Feb 9. More on Erik Olin Wright, and how his theory of 'contradictory class location' could be relevant to tech worker organising.
The limits of consumer action - Feb 7. Instacart workers recently organised against a change in pay structure, and won. Bizarrely, some saw this as a victory for consumer action.
Selling shovels - Feb 4. On Silicon Valley and the new California Gold Rush.
The Lucas Plan & Silicon Valley - Jan 29. In the 1970s, workers at Lucas Aerospace came up with a plan to repurpose the company's equipment to build more socially useful products, while also bringing it under worker control.
Tech workers and journalists, unite? - Jan 28. Google and Facebook didn't cause the demise of journalism, but they are hastening it, and hurting journalists in the process. But it doesn't have to be this way.
Capital knows who the enemy is - Jan 24. Labour is often confused about where its class interests lie. But capital never forgets.
There's a storm coming - Jan 17. The 2008 financial crisis showed us what happens when your models are incomplete. Tech companies have a similar problem, but with class struggle.
Take the job, but organise - Jan 10. Have the option to work in tech, but concerned about the ethics of the industry? There's a solution for that: organise.
Remember who the enemy is - Jan 9. On Mark Fisher's 2013 blog post about The Hunger Games & why it's still relevant today.
Theses on organising contractors in tech - Jan 3. Some inchoate thoughts on organising Silicon Valley's shadow workforce and why it matters.

cultural-criticism

Worker control and HBO's Silicon Valley - May 21. An analysis of the tech labour dynamics in the first episode of HBO's Silicon Valley's fifth season.
The choices you make - May 7. A look at Daenerys' journey over the eight seasons of Game of Thrones, and a possible parallel with today's ruling class.
The Viewer In The High Castle - Feb 1. Thoughts on the TV adaptation of The Man In The High Castle. Plus: a previously unpublished essay on why this sort of dystopian science fiction is important.
Can a heist be revolutionary? On Ocean's Eight - Jan 23. What makes a diamond necklace worth $150 million? Why does everyone act as if it is worth anything at all?
A materialist analysis of RuneScape - Jan 22. The materialist analysis that no one asked for but that I've been wanting to write for ages. Don't ask why. I won't be hurt if you don't read this.
Remember who the enemy is - Jan 9. On Mark Fisher's 2013 blog post about The Hunger Games & why it's still relevant today.

david-foster-wallace

Brief interviews with HR - Mar 2. A series of imaginary conversations with HR at various unnamed tech companies.
Brief interviews with the gig economy - Mar 1. An imaginary conversation with a representative of an unnamed gig economy company.
The Viewer In The High Castle - Feb 1. Thoughts on the TV adaptation of The Man In The High Castle. Plus: a previously unpublished essay on why this sort of dystopian science fiction is important.
The 'click' - Jan 21. What brought me to the left was finding a cognitive 'click' when I discovered big-t Theory.

fiction

Local Tech Worker Suggests Protesters Learn To Code - May 20. A fictional report from the Uber protest earlier this month.
Software engineer position at Serf.com - May 15. A fictional email from a technical recruiter looking for software engineers to build tools to help extract more work out of serfs.
The fly and the web - May 11. Another piece of flash fiction.
But He Could Not Outrun The Might of the People - May 10. A piece of flash fiction.
Brief interviews with HR - Mar 2. A series of imaginary conversations with HR at various unnamed tech companies.
Brief interviews with the gig economy - Mar 1. An imaginary conversation with a representative of an unnamed gig economy company.

financialisation

What if you could take out a loan to pay rent? - May 17. What if you could overthrow the socioeconomic system that forces you to resort to taking on debt in order to have a place to live?
Payday loans but with 'tips' instead of 'interest' - Mar 22. Fintech startup 'Earnin' may be a glorified payday lender, but it's managed to evade regulation by collecting tips instead of interest. This is ... not good.
Three cheers for financial assets - Mar 20. Bill Gates has joined the $100b club. Lyft is going to IPO at over $23b. You can trade municipal bonds without even doing any research on them.
The payday lender your boss recommends - Mar 5. Even, a fintech startup that offers payday loans, presents itself as tackling poverty. In reality, it's merely profiting from it.
Bank of Uber - Feb 27. A rundown of Uber's forays into the world of finance, and what that tells us about the system that gave rise to Uber.
Gaming frequent flyer programs - Feb 6. As airlines' products have gotten more and more consumer-unfriendly - made possible through consolidation and shareholder pressures - their loyalty programs have become more like games.
Can a heist be revolutionary? On Ocean's Eight - Jan 23. What makes a diamond necklace worth $150 million? Why does everyone act as if it is worth anything at all?
A materialist analysis of RuneScape - Jan 22. The materialist analysis that no one asked for but that I've been wanting to write for ages. Don't ask why. I won't be hurt if you don't read this.
Financialisation and the downsides of liquidity - Jan 20. One of the justifications behind the rise of the financial industry is that it provides liquidity. But liquidity isn't always a good thing.
The world's richest couple - Jan 19. Sure, MacKenzie Bezos should get half of Jeff Bezos' Amazon stock. But in an ideal world, that would be worth nothing.
There's a storm coming - Jan 17. The 2008 financial crisis showed us what happens when your models are incomplete. Tech companies have a similar problem, but with class struggle.

game-of-thrones

Every billionaire is a policy failure, part 1 - May 23. A danger of extreme wealth concentration: it gives rise to new imperatives.
Game of Thrones and the end of history - May 12. More thoughts on Daenerys' downward spiral and the comparisons one could make to today's ruling class.
The choices you make - May 7. A look at Daenerys' journey over the eight seasons of Game of Thrones, and a possible parallel with today's ruling class.
You are not your code - Apr 29. Why software engineers need to worry about the social, economic, political implications of the products they build.
The platform wars: Silicon Valley's Great Houses - Jan 30. Today in tech news: Apple fires a warning shot at Facebook for violating its app store policies. And the wheel keeps spinning.

games

On advertising fraud and RuneScape's bot economy - Feb 13. What the prevalence of advertising fraud tells us about the business models of platforms like Google & Facebook, and why advertising is core to capitalism as a whole.
When everyone else is an NPC - Feb 10. On Dynasty Warriors, and the political implications of treating other people like NPCs.
Gaming frequent flyer programs - Feb 6. As airlines' products have gotten more and more consumer-unfriendly - made possible through consolidation and shareholder pressures - their loyalty programs have become more like games.
A materialist analysis of RuneScape - Jan 22. The materialist analysis that no one asked for but that I've been wanting to write for ages. Don't ask why. I won't be hurt if you don't read this.

gig-economy

Local Tech Worker Suggests Protesters Learn To Code - May 20. A fictional report from the Uber protest earlier this month.
Is losing an investment like losing a limb? - May 8. Nassim Nicholas Taleb seems to think so.
Assume a spherical cow - May 3. If you ignored all the important details, you could end concluding that the economy is going great and everything is fine.
When regulation gets in the way - May 2. The traditional gig economy business model (using independent contractors) has just been confirmed to be illegal in California, in a ruling that applies retroactively.
Customer happiness isn't enough - Apr 28. The typical goal of antitrust enforcement is to ensure better outcomes for consumers. But customer happiness is not the most important factor when it comes to tech companies.
Lyft is the best capitalism has to offer - Mar 25. Boots Riley's 2018 film 'Sorry To Bother You' is not just a piece of speculative fiction - it depicts a dystopian future that's already here.
Brief interviews with the gig economy - Mar 1. An imaginary conversation with a representative of an unnamed gig economy company.
Bank of Uber - Feb 27. A rundown of Uber's forays into the world of finance, and what that tells us about the system that gave rise to Uber.
When a tip is not a tip - Feb 12. On DoorDash's institutionalised tip theft policy, and how that undermines the implicit contract that gives it legitimacy.
The limits of consumer action - Feb 7. Instacart workers recently organised against a change in pay structure, and won. Bizarrely, some saw this as a victory for consumer action.
Making kings out of startup founders - Jan 27. The legitimating myth of Silicon Valley suggests that successful entrepreneurs deserve their untold wealth because they created value for which they should be rewarded.
There's a storm coming - Jan 17. The 2008 financial crisis showed us what happens when your models are incomplete. Tech companies have a similar problem, but with class struggle.
Uber, but for waiting in line at the DMV - Jan 16. Need to get your driver's license renewed, but don't want to spend 6 hours waiting in line? There's an app for that.
Upward mobility and the tech industry - Jan 5. Musings on the concept of upward mobility, and how it's used to excuse inequality, no matter how stark or unjustifiable.

housing

The Zynga chronicles - May 25. Chronicling the real estate adventures of Zynga, a billion-dollar gaming startup in SF whose most lucrative product is its office.
What if you could take out a loan to pay rent? - May 17. What if you could overthrow the socioeconomic system that forces you to resort to taking on debt in order to have a place to live?
Locally optimal, globally absurd - Apr 18. Housing is an arena where the choices available to an individual are constrained within a narrow set of possibilities, each of which is globally suboptimal.
If the market doesn't give us affordable housing ... - Apr 11. An elegant way to fix the housing crisis would be to take housing out of the market sphere. Here's one way we could do that.
Homeless? There's an app for that - Mar 7. The great delusion of startup culture is that basically every problem can be solved with a startup, even a social problem like homelessness.
The downside of tech IPOs - Feb 26. This year's lineup of high-profile tech IPOs is going to be really, really bad for anyone who wants to live in the Bay Area and doesn't have access to IPO money.
Airbnb but for finding a place to work - Feb 25. Analysing the dubious business model of a real-life startup, Cobo: a 'two-sided marketplace for working out of homes during the day'.

ideology

The duality of tipping - May 6. The practice of tipping manages to be simultaneously highly capitalist yet weirdly outside the sphere of market relations.
The invisible hand of Adam Smith's mother - May 5. The sphere of social reproduction is a counterpoint to the capitalist idea that people will only be motivated to produce things by money.
Domain name colonialism - May 4. A brief history of Colombia's .co TLD as a neat little illustration of modern-day digital colonialism.
Unbundling progress - Apr 14. How can we criticise capitalism if it's brought us so much progress?
Why Peter Thiel praises monopolies - Apr 9. Thoughts on Peter Thiel's political belief system and the unstated assumptions buried within it.
When gatekeeping is legitimate - Apr 4. Some amount of gatekeeping in tech is valid, because not everyone is suited for every role. The problem is when the incentives are distorted by economic factors.
Capitalism only ever claims its successes - Mar 13. An illustrated guide to the proper reaction to tragic news from various parts of the world.
Capitalism and freedom - Mar 6. Why do free market ideologues think capitalism is the best way to achieve freedom, and how should the left respond?
Free software, free ethics - Mar 4. Did the free software movement sell out? Or was its vision of a software commons a doomed proposition from the outset?
Life under fascist rule - Feb 24. In the alternate history TV series 'The Man in the High Castle', most of 1960s America simply accepts Nazi or Japanese rule as a fact of life. Why don't they resist?
Gatekeeping in the tech industry - Feb 19. On the 'computer priesthood', negative solidarity, and the story of a hit man who kills other hit men so he can make more money.
Operation Barbarossa - Feb 15. Fleshing out a (possibly tenuous) parallel between capital's relationship to labour & Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
When a tip is not a tip - Feb 12. On DoorDash's institutionalised tip theft policy, and how that undermines the implicit contract that gives it legitimacy.
When everyone else is an NPC - Feb 10. On Dynasty Warriors, and the political implications of treating other people like NPCs.
Making kings out of startup founders - Jan 27. The legitimating myth of Silicon Valley suggests that successful entrepreneurs deserve their untold wealth because they created value for which they should be rewarded.
Capital knows who the enemy is - Jan 24. Labour is often confused about where its class interests lie. But capital never forgets.
Can a heist be revolutionary? On Ocean's Eight - Jan 23. What makes a diamond necklace worth $150 million? Why does everyone act as if it is worth anything at all?
The world's richest couple - Jan 19. Sure, MacKenzie Bezos should get half of Jeff Bezos' Amazon stock. But in an ideal world, that would be worth nothing.
Uber, but for waiting in line at the DMV - Jan 16. Need to get your driver's license renewed, but don't want to spend 6 hours waiting in line? There's an app for that.
There is no such thing as pre-tax income - Jan 15. The idea of 'pre-tax income' is a pernicious myth that has led to some really dumb libertarian takes around 'taxpayer money'. It needs to be abolished.
Remember who the enemy is - Jan 9. On Mark Fisher's 2013 blog post about The Hunger Games & why it's still relevant today.
Revenge of the nerds - Jan 8. Reflections on Paul Graham's 2003 blog post about nerds, and what it illuminates about the tech industry today.

immigration

On internal migration restrictions - Apr 22. When China restricts rural-urban migration, it's bad. When the same sort of restrictions are created by capitalism, that's totally fine.
Why are Asians so good at school? - Mar 19. On the material factors behind the overrepresentation of Asian-Americans at prestigious high schools in NYC.
Making US immigration fair again - Mar 17. Everyone knows the system is broken. Wouldn't it be great if we reformed it in such a way as to benefit capital?
But what if we used drones? - Jan 4. The US needs neither a border wall nor drones. Plus: a previously unpublished piece on 'illegal' immigration.
2018 in retrospective - Jan 2. A highly curated summary of things that happened to me in 2018.

inequality

Every billionaire is a policy failure, part 2 - May 24. Reflecting on the recent news that a billionaire offered to pay off some lucky graduates' student loan debt.
Every billionaire is a policy failure, part 1 - May 23. A danger of extreme wealth concentration: it gives rise to new imperatives.
Equality of opportunity vs equality of outcome - May 1. If you don't have the latter, do you really have the former?
Economic inequality is almost never harmless - Apr 25. (continued from day 113) The reason economic inequality is a problem is because it grants some undue power over others.
We can have entrepreneurship without extreme wealth - Apr 24. (continued from day 113) Contesting the idea that you need the promise of massive financial reward to spur socially-useful entrepreneurship.
What's wrong with inequality? - Apr 23. Surely inequality is just a natural consequence of innovation. And anyway, it's not that bad.
Why do people work? - Apr 21. Under capitalism, the way to encourage someone to work is to offer them money. But the effects of offering more money are neither guaranteed nor uniform.
Locally optimal, globally absurd - Apr 18. Housing is an arena where the choices available to an individual are constrained within a narrow set of possibilities, each of which is globally suboptimal.
Unbundling progress - Apr 14. How can we criticise capitalism if it's brought us so much progress?
Gratitude is a trap - Apr 10. How dare you criticise a system that provided you with the means of criticising it in the first place? You should be grateful.
The billionaire who wants to reform capitalism - Apr 6. Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio thinks that capitalism needs to be reformed. Who cares.
Three cheers for financial assets - Mar 20. Bill Gates has joined the $100b club. Lyft is going to IPO at over $23b. You can trade municipal bonds without even doing any research on them.
Why are Asians so good at school? - Mar 19. On the material factors behind the overrepresentation of Asian-Americans at prestigious high schools in NYC.
The downside of tech IPOs - Feb 26. This year's lineup of high-profile tech IPOs is going to be really, really bad for anyone who wants to live in the Bay Area and doesn't have access to IPO money.
Making kings out of startup founders - Jan 27. The legitimating myth of Silicon Valley suggests that successful entrepreneurs deserve their untold wealth because they created value for which they should be rewarded.
Sometimes it's not a technical problem - Jan 25. Some problems arise due to the larger socioeconomic system, and introducing technical innovations won't help unless they actually change that system.
On scooters - Jan 18. Scooter startups should not exist. If we want scooters, they should be a public service.
Uber, but for waiting in line at the DMV - Jan 16. Need to get your driver's license renewed, but don't want to spend 6 hours waiting in line? There's an app for that.
There is no such thing as pre-tax income - Jan 15. The idea of 'pre-tax income' is a pernicious myth that has led to some really dumb libertarian takes around 'taxpayer money'. It needs to be abolished.
So you want to do a masters degree on inequality - Jan 14. Advice for anyone considering doing a masters degree on the topic of inequality.
Ellen Pao, KPCB, and the elephant in the room - Jan 12. What a lawsuit over gender discrimination in the top echelons of Silicon Valley reveals about the weakness of liberal feminism.
Startup idea: Airbnb for towed cars - Jan 7. A truly diabolical startup idea that I really hope never actually materialises.
Upward mobility and the tech industry - Jan 5. Musings on the concept of upward mobility, and how it's used to excuse inequality, no matter how stark or unjustifiable.

intellectual-property

Customer happiness isn't enough - Apr 28. The typical goal of antitrust enforcement is to ensure better outcomes for consumers. But customer happiness is not the most important factor when it comes to tech companies.
Borrowing an ebook from the library - Apr 20. All copies of this ebook are currently checked out, so you'll have to wait until one becomes available.
Insulin as a public service - Apr 13. The public health crisis created by rising insulin costs is a strong argument for public provision of important drugs. This isn’t as impractical as it sounds.
Art should be free - Mar 30. Free art is not something that can be achieved in the here-and-now, but the demand makes a political statement about the kind of world we want to live in.
Rent-seeking as a service - Mar 27. The geniuses of Silicon Valley have become the thing they fear the most: tax collectors.
Free software, free ethics - Mar 4. Did the free software movement sell out? Or was its vision of a software commons a doomed proposition from the outset?
Gatekeeping in the tech industry - Feb 19. On the 'computer priesthood', negative solidarity, and the story of a hit man who kills other hit men so he can make more money.
Why is J.K. Rowling so rich? - Feb 18. Because modern-day capitalism is extremely bad at effectively allocating resources.

jason-calacanis

Assume a spherical cow - May 3. If you ignored all the important details, you could end concluding that the economy is going great and everything is fine.
996.ICU and the rewards of hard work - Apr 27. Some Chinese tech workers are being asked to work 9am-9pm, 6 days a week. Will this serve as a wake-up call for Silicon Valley to start working harder?
The envy of the failed entrepreneur - Mar 29. One easy trick to counter criticism of a social system: by dismissing the critics as being motivated by jealousy, rather than reason.
What will we do without the entrepreneurs? - Mar 8. A brief tale illustrating the tragic consequences of misunderstanding who creates value in a society, told through a series of tweets.

liberal-feminism

The world's richest couple - Jan 19. Sure, MacKenzie Bezos should get half of Jeff Bezos' Amazon stock. But in an ideal world, that would be worth nothing.
Ellen Pao, KPCB, and the elephant in the room - Jan 12. What a lawsuit over gender discrimination in the top echelons of Silicon Valley reveals about the weakness of liberal feminism.

mark-fisher

The Super Bowl - Feb 3. The 53rd Super Bowl took place today, in the Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, in an exciting display of ads interpersed with a bit of football.
Remember who the enemy is - Jan 9. On Mark Fisher's 2013 blog post about The Hunger Games & why it's still relevant today.
Why I'm doing this - Jan 1. Why I'm making myself write a blog post every day in 2019.

meritocracy

When the sorting function is broken - Apr 26. Our current 'meritocratic' sorting function is a terrible way to sort people into a system with highly variable economic rewards.
The envy of the failed entrepreneur - Mar 29. One easy trick to counter criticism of a social system: by dismissing the critics as being motivated by jealousy, rather than reason.
Not all millennials - Mar 23. You'll find no shortage of articles on the proscribed economic prospects of millennials. It may be true for the majority, but if you're in the minority, it's confusing.
Why are Asians so good at school? - Mar 19. On the material factors behind the overrepresentation of Asian-Americans at prestigious high schools in NYC.
The unfortunate reality behind meritocracy - Mar 12. A collection of responses to the elite college admissions scandals.
Reflections on Fyre Festival - Jan 26. Entrepreneur (and scam artist) Billy McFarland was a product of his system, and he has more in common with 'legitimate' entrepreneurs than they'd like to admit.
A materialist analysis of RuneScape - Jan 22. The materialist analysis that no one asked for but that I've been wanting to write for ages. Don't ask why. I won't be hurt if you don't read this.
When you live long enough to become the villain - Jan 13. Tech startups may start out with good intentions, but the process of gaining wealth and power comes with existential risks.
Upward mobility and the tech industry - Jan 5. Musings on the concept of upward mobility, and how it's used to excuse inequality, no matter how stark or unjustifiable.
Theses on organising contractors in tech - Jan 3. Some inchoate thoughts on organising Silicon Valley's shadow workforce and why it matters.

personal

In the long run we are all dead - May 19. A quote from an essay by John Maynard Keynes.
You are not your code - Apr 29. Why software engineers need to worry about the social, economic, political implications of the products they build.
Why do people work? - Apr 21. Under capitalism, the way to encourage someone to work is to offer them money. But the effects of offering more money are neither guaranteed nor uniform.
Finding the breadcrumbs - Apr 17. I found the left at a time of my life when I was forced to admit that I didn't actually know as much about the world as I thought I did.
When the seas rise - Apr 5. I have still not come to terms with the fact that things could be catastrophic, and I'm not sure how I ever could.
The envy of the failed entrepreneur - Mar 29. One easy trick to counter criticism of a social system: by dismissing the critics as being motivated by jealousy, rather than reason.
The rise of the Instagram influencer - Mar 28. And what it says about our economic system.
Not all millennials - Mar 23. You'll find no shortage of articles on the proscribed economic prospects of millennials. It may be true for the majority, but if you're in the minority, it's confusing.
Making US immigration fair again - Mar 17. Everyone knows the system is broken. Wouldn't it be great if we reformed it in such a way as to benefit capital?
Just tell me what to do - Mar 11. Sometimes I don't know if I should be prepping for the collapse, fighting to avert it, or just giving up because nothing I do will matter anyway.
The struggle is ongoing - Mar 9. Reflections on the oft-ridiculed liberal idea that we live in 'the end of history', and what that meant to me personally.
No map is available - Feb 8. On Erik Olin Wright and his idea of a socialist compass.
Gaming frequent flyer programs - Feb 6. As airlines' products have gotten more and more consumer-unfriendly - made possible through consolidation and shareholder pressures - their loyalty programs have become more like games.
Leaping into the unknown - Feb 5. An attempt to explain why I latched onto left politics after ragequitting tech.
Selling shovels - Feb 4. On Silicon Valley and the new California Gold Rush.
A materialist analysis of RuneScape - Jan 22. The materialist analysis that no one asked for but that I've been wanting to write for ages. Don't ask why. I won't be hurt if you don't read this.
The 'click' - Jan 21. What brought me to the left was finding a cognitive 'click' when I discovered big-t Theory.
There is no such thing as pre-tax income - Jan 15. The idea of 'pre-tax income' is a pernicious myth that has led to some really dumb libertarian takes around 'taxpayer money'. It needs to be abolished.
So you want to do a masters degree on inequality - Jan 14. Advice for anyone considering doing a masters degree on the topic of inequality.
The overnight test - Jan 11. On Linds Reddings' 2012 blog post 'A Short Lesson in Perspective', which reflects on his 30 years in the advertising industry and concludes that it wasn't worth it.
Revenge of the nerds - Jan 8. Reflections on Paul Graham's 2003 blog post about nerds, and what it illuminates about the tech industry today.
Dialectical banter - Jan 6. A compendium of bad jokes about politics, philosophy, and other things, featuring myself and @tlornewr.
2018 in retrospective - Jan 2. A highly curated summary of things that happened to me in 2018.
Why I'm doing this - Jan 1. Why I'm making myself write a blog post every day in 2019.

public-services

Borrowing an ebook from the library - Apr 20. All copies of this ebook are currently checked out, so you'll have to wait until one becomes available.
Why we can't have free online tax filing - Apr 15. Powerful corporations view politics as an arena in which to ensure their continued existence, at the expense of everybody else.
Insulin as a public service - Apr 13. The public health crisis created by rising insulin costs is a strong argument for public provision of important drugs. This isn’t as impractical as it sounds.
Art should be free - Mar 30. Free art is not something that can be achieved in the here-and-now, but the demand makes a political statement about the kind of world we want to live in.
Rent-seeking as a service - Mar 27. The geniuses of Silicon Valley have become the thing they fear the most: tax collectors.
Financialisation and the downsides of liquidity - Jan 20. One of the justifications behind the rise of the financial industry is that it provides liquidity. But liquidity isn't always a good thing.
On scooters - Jan 18. Scooter startups should not exist. If we want scooters, they should be a public service.
There is no such thing as pre-tax income - Jan 15. The idea of 'pre-tax income' is a pernicious myth that has led to some really dumb libertarian takes around 'taxpayer money'. It needs to be abolished.

recap

April recap - Apr 30. A summary of the last 30 posts.
March recap - Mar 31. A summary of the last 31 posts. Also: subscribe to my newsletter!
February recap - Feb 28. A summary of the last 27 posts. Only 10 months to go ...
January recap - Jan 31. A summary of the last 30 posts, and a glimpse of topics I'll be writing about next month.

startups

The Zynga chronicles - May 25. Chronicling the real estate adventures of Zynga, a billion-dollar gaming startup in SF whose most lucrative product is its office.
Worker control and HBO's Silicon Valley - May 21. An analysis of the tech labour dynamics in the first episode of HBO's Silicon Valley's fifth season.
A union for startups - May 18. Reflections on Brex, which bills itself as a corporate card for startups, and what it means to uncritically promote startups in this day and age.
What if you could take out a loan to pay rent? - May 17. What if you could overthrow the socioeconomic system that forces you to resort to taking on debt in order to have a place to live?
Cannabis Delivery Concierge - May 16. A photo of a billboard on Folsom St in San Francisco, presented without comment.
Is losing an investment like losing a limb? - May 8. Nassim Nicholas Taleb seems to think so.
Assume a spherical cow - May 3. If you ignored all the important details, you could end concluding that the economy is going great and everything is fine.
We can have entrepreneurship without extreme wealth - Apr 24. (continued from day 113) Contesting the idea that you need the promise of massive financial reward to spur socially-useful entrepreneurship.
Building a better billboard - Apr 16. Advertising technology solutions tend to optimise for the world as it is, not the world as it should be.
Why Peter Thiel praises monopolies - Apr 9. Thoughts on Peter Thiel's political belief system and the unstated assumptions buried within it.
Eero's fire sale - Apr 8. The seemingly singular story of a distressed startup's acquisition which inadvertently reveals the con embedded within capitalism.
Workplace surveillance - Apr 7. Workplace surveillance is more than merely an issue of privacy. It's about power, and control, and deepening a relation of class domination.
When your startup turns sour (on npm) - Apr 2. It's time to make money, which means: cost-cutting, layoffs, and a desperate rush to turn the product into a revenue engine, no matter how much that damages reputation.
The envy of the failed entrepreneur - Mar 29. One easy trick to counter criticism of a social system: by dismissing the critics as being motivated by jealousy, rather than reason.
The rise of the Instagram influencer - Mar 28. And what it says about our economic system.
Tech startup valuations are dumb, part 1 - Mar 26. McDonald's $300m purchase of Dynamic Yield captures how startup valuations have become increasingly unmoored from any desirable reality.
Lyft is the best capitalism has to offer - Mar 25. Boots Riley's 2018 film 'Sorry To Bother You' is not just a piece of speculative fiction - it depicts a dystopian future that's already here.
How to avoid the misappropriation of unions - Mar 24. An illustrated guide for those concerned that they're too privileged to join a union.
Payday loans but with 'tips' instead of 'interest' - Mar 22. Fintech startup 'Earnin' may be a glorified payday lender, but it's managed to evade regulation by collecting tips instead of interest. This is ... not good.
If you have a boss, you need a union - Mar 21. Kickstarter employees are trying to unionise, but some senior staff are claiming that a union doesn't make sense because they're too 'privileged'.
Enterprise AI: We're hiring! - Mar 16. San Francisco is filled with billboards advertising little more than the idea of working at a tech startup.
What will we do without the entrepreneurs? - Mar 8. A brief tale illustrating the tragic consequences of misunderstanding who creates value in a society, told through a series of tweets.
Homeless? There's an app for that - Mar 7. The great delusion of startup culture is that basically every problem can be solved with a startup, even a social problem like homelessness.
The payday lender your boss recommends - Mar 5. Even, a fintech startup that offers payday loans, presents itself as tackling poverty. In reality, it's merely profiting from it.
The downside of tech IPOs - Feb 26. This year's lineup of high-profile tech IPOs is going to be really, really bad for anyone who wants to live in the Bay Area and doesn't have access to IPO money.
Airbnb but for finding a place to work - Feb 25. Analysing the dubious business model of a real-life startup, Cobo: a 'two-sided marketplace for working out of homes during the day'.
Without their permission - Feb 22. Startup founders love to flout the rules, assuming it's best to ask for forgiveness, not permission. But they're not breaking the rules for the right cause.
Selling shovels - Feb 4. On Silicon Valley and the new California Gold Rush.
Making kings out of startup founders - Jan 27. The legitimating myth of Silicon Valley suggests that successful entrepreneurs deserve their untold wealth because they created value for which they should be rewarded.
Reflections on Fyre Festival - Jan 26. Entrepreneur (and scam artist) Billy McFarland was a product of his system, and he has more in common with 'legitimate' entrepreneurs than they'd like to admit.
Sometimes it's not a technical problem - Jan 25. Some problems arise due to the larger socioeconomic system, and introducing technical innovations won't help unless they actually change that system.
On scooters - Jan 18. Scooter startups should not exist. If we want scooters, they should be a public service.
Uber, but for waiting in line at the DMV - Jan 16. Need to get your driver's license renewed, but don't want to spend 6 hours waiting in line? There's an app for that.
When you live long enough to become the villain - Jan 13. Tech startups may start out with good intentions, but the process of gaining wealth and power comes with existential risks.
Revenge of the nerds - Jan 8. Reflections on Paul Graham's 2003 blog post about nerds, and what it illuminates about the tech industry today.
Startup idea: Airbnb for towed cars - Jan 7. A truly diabolical startup idea that I really hope never actually materialises.
But what if we used drones? - Jan 4. The US needs neither a border wall nor drones. Plus: a previously unpublished piece on 'illegal' immigration.

the-hunger-games

Remember who the enemy is - Jan 9. On Mark Fisher's 2013 blog post about The Hunger Games & why it's still relevant today.

the-left

Why hypocrisy is good, actually - May 13. Or at least, why charges of hypocrisy against the left aren't necessarily a killer argument.
When the sorting function is broken - Apr 26. Our current 'meritocratic' sorting function is a terrible way to sort people into a system with highly variable economic rewards.
Finding the breadcrumbs - Apr 17. I found the left at a time of my life when I was forced to admit that I didn't actually know as much about the world as I thought I did.
Not all millennials - Mar 23. You'll find no shortage of articles on the proscribed economic prospects of millennials. It may be true for the majority, but if you're in the minority, it's confusing.
How do you convince someone to resist? - Mar 15. In 'The Man in the High Castle', one of the characters, John Smith, went from fighting the Nazis to becoming a high-ranking Nazi official.
I was marching - Feb 21. On Meridel Le Sueur's celebrated essay of the same name, about her experiences during the Minneapolis truck drivers' strike of 1934.
You say you're a socialist, but ... - Feb 20. How can socialists claim they care about workers' rights but still use their iPhone? Easy: because socialism is a method of systemic critique, not a description of personal consumption habits.
Leaping into the unknown - Feb 5. An attempt to explain why I latched onto left politics after ragequitting tech.
The 'click' - Jan 21. What brought me to the left was finding a cognitive 'click' when I discovered big-t Theory.
Dialectical banter - Jan 6. A compendium of bad jokes about politics, philosophy, and other things, featuring myself and @tlornewr.

the-man-in-the-high-castle

When does the system becomes intolerable? - May 9. An analysis of Robert Childan's decision in the season 3 finale of The Man in the High Castle.
How do you convince someone to resist? - Mar 15. In 'The Man in the High Castle', one of the characters, John Smith, went from fighting the Nazis to becoming a high-ranking Nazi official.
Life under fascist rule - Feb 24. In the alternate history TV series 'The Man in the High Castle', most of 1960s America simply accepts Nazi or Japanese rule as a fact of life. Why don't they resist?
Operation Barbarossa - Feb 15. Fleshing out a (possibly tenuous) parallel between capital's relationship to labour & Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Viewer In The High Castle - Feb 1. Thoughts on the TV adaptation of The Man In The High Castle. Plus: a previously unpublished essay on why this sort of dystopian science fiction is important.

underdogs

Game of Thrones and the end of history - May 12. More thoughts on Daenerys' downward spiral and the comparisons one could make to today's ruling class.
The choices you make - May 7. A look at Daenerys' journey over the eight seasons of Game of Thrones, and a possible parallel with today's ruling class.
There's a storm coming - Jan 17. The 2008 financial crisis showed us what happens when your models are incomplete. Tech companies have a similar problem, but with class struggle.
When you live long enough to become the villain - Jan 13. Tech startups may start out with good intentions, but the process of gaining wealth and power comes with existential risks.
Revenge of the nerds - Jan 8. Reflections on Paul Graham's 2003 blog post about nerds, and what it illuminates about the tech industry today.

us-politics

Why we can't have free online tax filing - Apr 15. Powerful corporations view politics as an arena in which to ensure their continued existence, at the expense of everybody else.
There are experts, and there are experts - Apr 12. Liberals love to scorn conservatives' dismissal of so-called 'experts'. But there is no ultimate technocratic authority to appeal to.
Is UBI the answer? - Mar 14. The UBI proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is responding to a very different question from what the left is asking.

working-in-tech

Worker control and HBO's Silicon Valley - May 21. An analysis of the tech labour dynamics in the first episode of HBO's Silicon Valley's fifth season.
Local Tech Worker Suggests Protesters Learn To Code - May 20. A fictional report from the Uber protest earlier this month.
Software engineer position at Serf.com - May 15. A fictional email from a technical recruiter looking for software engineers to build tools to help extract more work out of serfs.
Is losing an investment like losing a limb? - May 8. Nassim Nicholas Taleb seems to think so.
You are not your code - Apr 29. Why software engineers need to worry about the social, economic, political implications of the products they build.
996.ICU and the rewards of hard work - Apr 27. Some Chinese tech workers are being asked to work 9am-9pm, 6 days a week. Will this serve as a wake-up call for Silicon Valley to start working harder?
When the sorting function is broken - Apr 26. Our current 'meritocratic' sorting function is a terrible way to sort people into a system with highly variable economic rewards.
On internal migration restrictions - Apr 22. When China restricts rural-urban migration, it's bad. When the same sort of restrictions are created by capitalism, that's totally fine.
Why do people work? - Apr 21. Under capitalism, the way to encourage someone to work is to offer them money. But the effects of offering more money are neither guaranteed nor uniform.
Eero's fire sale - Apr 8. The seemingly singular story of a distressed startup's acquisition which inadvertently reveals the con embedded within capitalism.
When gatekeeping is legitimate - Apr 4. Some amount of gatekeeping in tech is valid, because not everyone is suited for every role. The problem is when the incentives are distorted by economic factors.
When your startup turns sour (on npm) - Apr 2. It's time to make money, which means: cost-cutting, layoffs, and a desperate rush to turn the product into a revenue engine, no matter how much that damages reputation.
If tech job postings were honest - Apr 1. For execs: money, more money, and protection from getting #MeToo'd. For contractors: tepid pay and working conditions, but if you complain you get fired.
If you have a boss, you need a union - Mar 21. Kickstarter employees are trying to unionise, but some senior staff are claiming that a union doesn't make sense because they're too 'privileged'.
When it's time to refactor - Mar 18. A programming analogy for how we could see the failures of modern-day capitalism.
Enterprise AI: We're hiring! - Mar 16. San Francisco is filled with billboards advertising little more than the idea of working at a tech startup.
Brief interviews with HR - Mar 2. A series of imaginary conversations with HR at various unnamed tech companies.
Exploding the contradictions - Feb 9. More on Erik Olin Wright, and how his theory of 'contradictory class location' could be relevant to tech worker organising.
The Lucas Plan & Silicon Valley - Jan 29. In the 1970s, workers at Lucas Aerospace came up with a plan to repurpose the company's equipment to build more socially useful products, while also bringing it under worker control.
The overnight test - Jan 11. On Linds Reddings' 2012 blog post 'A Short Lesson in Perspective', which reflects on his 30 years in the advertising industry and concludes that it wasn't worth it.
Take the job, but organise - Jan 10. Have the option to work in tech, but concerned about the ethics of the industry? There's a solution for that: organise.
Theses on organising contractors in tech - Jan 3. Some inchoate thoughts on organising Silicon Valley's shadow workforce and why it matters.

writing

2018 in retrospective - Jan 2. A highly curated summary of things that happened to me in 2018.
Why I'm doing this - Jan 1. Why I'm making myself write a blog post every day in 2019.