Goodhart's Law (of AI): When a metric becomes a target, AI can hit it every time.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115011086495467833
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Hey look at this
* Cybertruck Leads Teslaβs Used-Car Collapse https://gizmodo.com/cybertruck-leads-teslas-used-car-collapse-2000641133
* Hackers Went Looking for a Backdoor in High-Security Safesβand Now Can Open Them in Seconds https://www.wired.com/story/securam-prologic-safe-lock-backdoor-exploits/
* I clustered four Framework Mainboards to test huge LLMs https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/i-clustered-four-framework-mainboards-test-huge-llms
* The Framework Desktop is a beast https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-framework-desktop-is-a-beast-636fb4ff
* Leaving MAGA https://leavingmaga.org/they-left-maga/steve-vilchez/
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#15yrsago Bill Ayersβs To Teach: The Journey, in Comics, a humanist look at education https://memex.craphound.com/2010/08/10/bill-ayerss-to-teach-the-journey-in-comics-a-humanist-look-at-education/
#10yrsago Kansas officials stonewall mathematician investigating voting machine βsabotageβ https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article27951310.html
#10yrsago Chinese mega-manufacturers set up factories in India https://web.archive.org/web/20150811043714/https://www.itworld.com/article/2968375/android/foxconn-to-invest-5b-to-set-up-first-of-up-to-12-factories-in-india.html
#10yrsago Oracleβs CSO demands an end to customers checking Oracle products for defects https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/oracle-security-chief-to-customers-stop-checking-our-code-for-vulnerabilities/
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#10yrsago Girl Sex 101: βfor EVERYone who wants to bone down with chicks, regardless of your gender/orientation.β https://www.ohjoysextoy.com/girlsex-101/
#10yrsago John Oliver on the brutal state of sex-ed in America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0jQz6jqQS0
#10yrsago Insurance monitoring dashboard devices used by Uber let hackers βcut your brakesβ over wireless https://www.wired.com/2015/08/hackers-cut-corvettes-brakes-via-common-car-gadget/
#10yrsago US lobbying for TPP to lock up clinical trial data https://theconversation.com/how-the-battle-over-biologics-helped-stall-the-trans-pacific-partnership-45648
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#10yrsago Larry Lessig considers running for the Democratic presidential nomination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaqrQz71bMk
#10yrsago Felicia Dayβs βYouβre Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)β https://memex.craphound.com/2015/08/11/felicia-days-youre-never-weird-on-the-internet-almost/
#10yrsago Overshare: Justin Hallβs biopic about the first social media/blogging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxD4mqFtySQ
#5yrsago When you hear "intangibles"β¦ https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/11/nor-glom-of-nit/#capitalists-hate-competition
#5yrsago How they're killing the post office https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/11/nor-glom-of-nit/#sos-usps
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#5yrsago Terra Nullius https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/11/nor-glom-of-nit/#terra-nullius
#5yrsago Uber lost $4b in H1/2020 https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/10/folksy-monopolists/#bezzled
#5yrsago Warren Buffet, monopolist https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/10/folksy-monopolists/#folksy-monopolists
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Saturday's threads: Millionaire on billionaire violence; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114999182656097109
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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:
* #Ithaca: AD White keynote (Cornell), Sep 12
https://deanoffaculty.cornell.edu/events/keynote-cory-doctorow-professor-at-large/
* #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/
* #Miami: Enshittification at Books & Books, Nov 5
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1504647263469
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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25
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Recent appearances:
* Tariffs vs IP Law (Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFABFe-5-uQ
* ORG at 20: In conversation with Maria Farrell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9H2An_D6io
* Why aren't we controlling our own tech? (Co-Op Congress)
https://www.youtube.com/live/GLrDwHgeCy4?si=NUWxPphk0FS_3g9J&t=4409
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@pluralistic@mamot.fr
"Good policymaking consists of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome)."
My favorite formulation of this notion: "If it doesn't work, do it harder."
@cavyherd@wandering.shop As a programmer, I've heard: "XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of itβ¦"
@pluralistic@mamot.fr
@cavyherd@wandering.shop @pluralistic@mamot.fr It's not all wrong. Mass vaccination is giving shots over and over again, but expecting a different outcome, like the end of polio or measles.
@clayfoot@mastodon.social true, but you can see a different distribution of outcomes between those who already got them and those who haven't @cavyherd@wandering.shop @pluralistic@mamot.fr
@clayfoot@mastodon.social true, but you can see a different distribution of outcomes between those who already got them and those who haven't @cavyherd@wandering.shop @pluralistic@mamot.fr