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Cory Doctorow

đŸ‘€ Speaker
See mentions of this person in podcasts
1557 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

So in behavioral economics, we have this idea called the Ulysses Pact.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

So if you're familiar with the story of Ulysses, right, he wants to hear the song of the sirens and

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

And anyone who hears the song jumps in the sea and is drowned by them.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

And his sailors have a protocol.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

They fill their ears with wax.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

But he's like, no, I want to hear the song.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

He's a hacker, right?

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

He wants to eat his cake and have it too.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

So he wants to hear the songs.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

What he does is he ties himself to the mast so he can hear the song but not act on its compulsion.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

And a Ulysses pact is anytime you take some course of action off the table now, while you're strong, in anticipation of your future weakness.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

So that might mean, for example, a distribution system that's open to all players.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

So not locking yourself into YouTube, having an RSS feed, not...

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

You know, being behind Spotify's paywall or behind one of these other services paywall, which means that you're vulnerable to Spotify applying pressure to you.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

It might mean unionizing your workers, because if you're the kind of person who can rationalize your way into saying, as I've seen so many people do, right, your VC shows up and says, you've got to make things bad for the business or bad for your users.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

And if you don't, I'm going to pull the plug and you're going to have to fire your workers.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

And you're like, well, I convinced all these people to come work for me.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

They're like betting their kid's college fund and their mortgage on it.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

You know, I am a uniquely good guy.

Morning Brew Daily
What is “Enshittification” of Tech Companies? With Author Cory Doctorow

And so I can save all those jobs and live to fight another day.