One estimate says 2.4 million people die in the U.S. each year, and burying them is expensive: a typical burial can cost about $10,000. That's a lot of money, caskets, and plots filling up cemeteries. But ... what if there was a cost-effective option to bury people, one that was good for the Earth and your pocket book? Today, we look at the prices and features of sustainable burials.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. How do I explain shaving my head to my coworkers?
I’m a late 20s woman who has been dealing with genetic hair loss (female pattern baldness) for over 10 years now. It’s at the point where I’m over getting anxious every time the wind blows or stressing about styling my hair to hide it. I’m going to shave it all off tonight.
However, I’m pretty sure no one at work has really noticed, and I know as a woman it’s always a big deal when you turn up bald. Do you have any advice for how to approach questions and comments without being too rude or specific? I’m dreading being asked if I’m raising money for something.
P.S. I’m so happy baldness is becoming a more and more chill thing for men to talk about, but I’m shitty it is still so so stigmatised for women.
Are you comfortable saying, “It’s just a style choice!” Or even just a cheery, “Yep, shaved it off!” People aren’t entitled to know more than that and if you make it clear you chose to do it, anyone even moderately polite should accept that.
You might get some questions from people who are simply curious about it (a lot of women will find it fascinating and have questions, which will be more about their relationship with their own hair than with yours) but if you don’t want to get into it, it’s fine to say, “Oh, I’d love not to talk about it since half my reason for doing it was not to think about it anymore — thanks for understanding.”
2. Is my manager overreacting to small mistakes?
I started my first corporate job six months ago, but I had 15 years of work experience prior to my current role. My boss told me he was unhappy with three mistakes I made in weekly reports I sent to him. Over six months: I incorrectly totaled one column in Excel, I duplicated a tab in one report, and once I used the wrong colored text for a field. None of these mistakes had any business impact and I promptly corrected them when he pointed out the issues. I think this was a reasonable number of mistakes in my first six months.
My performance review and ranking were very bad. The review stated I have “poor attention to detail” and required me to make a plan to improve my performance. I’m stunned because I haven’t made any errors since November. Is this a normal thing for corporate jobs? The HR specialist said she’s giving me six months to improve my attention detail, citing those three reports. There are no other examples of having poor attention to detail in the review. I have met all internal and external deadlines and my work has received good reviews from the other managers. This one manager is known to be particular but he is high up in the company.
Unless there’s really important context missing (like you were asked to fix the mistakes but then you finalized the report without bothering to change anything), this is not normal. This sounds like a routine, unalarming number of minor mistakes made during your first months on the job — and it’s particularly weird that it’s being brought up months later.
Instead of making a plan to improve your performance, I would make a plan to get away from this manager.
3. I’m missing out on work conversations because I don’t smoke
I work for a government department through a contracted agency. There are 50 of us working varied days and hours. No one is allowed to smoke on grounds, so a designated smoking location is by the parking lot. Several members of my department schedule their smoke breaks at the same time every day, making a rather large group from the department.
One of my directors, “John,” joins staff on these scheduled breaks. During these breaks, department information is shared and discussion of department scheduling and staffing decisions/options take place. John has spoken to one of my coworkers, “Jane,” who I work most directly about possible workload decisions. Jane and I work very well together, and to her credit she does share conversations with me and I am aware that my input is also passed on to John during these breaks.
I am a non-smoker. I do not want to join a group of smokers as the non-smoker so I can be part of the “department.” I do have health issues that would be compromised and I do not feel the need to participate in everything involved in a smoke break (going out to the parking lot, weather concerns, my own scheduling, signing in and out for building clearances, etc.).
John has been there as long as I have. I often feel he was promoted beyond his competence, or possibly unprepared for the management role within the department, and has difficulty managing staff who were his former coworkers and remain his friends.I guess I would not have a problem with a smoke break that happened to be at the same time as some of the staff and it happened infrequently. Is there an issue with any of this or do I let it go and not let it bother me?
You’re right to be bothered by it. It’s fine for John to take his smoke break with other smokers, but he should make a point not to have significant work conversations there. He’s putting you at a disadvantage because you don’t smoke and don’t want to be around smoke.
What’s your relationship with John like and how reasonable is he? Ideally you’d talk to him, say you’re missing out on important work conversations that you’d like to be part of, and ask if hold those conversations back in the office instead. Whether or not he’ll be amenable to that is a question — but he should be, and it’s a reasonable thing for you to raise.
Another option if you need it: any chance Jane would be willing to make the same point whenever the work conversations start up out there?
4. Who pays for a travel mistake that’s partly my fault, partly my employer’s?
I went on a work trip to another state, and HR booked my tickets. I asked in advance to return three days later than other colleagues, as I have a good friend in the state we travelled to. I travel there a few times a year and work has always approved this arrangement as long as I cover costs for the additional nights and the date change doesn’t result in a substantial price change. Being out of the office the following three days doesn’t have an impact because I work remotely on any weekdays and we have a hybrid policy, so I wouldn’t be in the office anyway. The extra days make the trip more manageable for me, because otherwise HR books our flights on the same day as our meetings, resulting in long days (think a full day of meetings on the final day, a work dinner, and flight arriving home at 2 am — we’re generally expected to log on a couple of hours later the next day if we choose, but still work a full day unless taking annual leave).
This time, HR booked my flights with the return on the same day as everyone else. They sent me the tickets, but only a few days beforehand when we were all crazy busy preparing for this trip. I didn’t notice the return date was different than I wanted until my intended return date — when I realized the flight had been booked for three days earlier, along with everyone else’s, and had to get a last-minute ticket to get myself home.
I’m happy to suck up the cost and chalk it up to experience, but would I be totally off-base if I did ask my employer if they’d consider contributing toward the new ticket I needed to buy? I admit I’m responsible for not noticing the different date, but I was clear about the dates I wanted in our back and forth about booking and when they forwarded my ticket they didn’t flag that they’d booked a different date to the one I requested. I can see that from their point of view, the mistake arose from them going out of their way to try to accommodate me, but it’s also not a huge accommodation since there’s no extra cost to them and if anything, this arrangement leaves me more well rested. We used to book our own flights and get reimbursed, and I know if I’d done that, I’d have been checking details more thoroughly.
Hmmm. I think you can ask, but be prepared for them to say no. Frame it as, “The ticket purchased for me was different than the dates we’d agreed to before the trip, which left me needing to buy a last-minute ticket on my own to get home. I’m hoping that’s something the company will help me cover, at least partially, since the mistake was on the booking side.” It’s not a super strong argument, and if they say no, I wouldn’t pursue it any further (since, as you point out, the mistake arose from them trying to accommodate you for something personal and they can argue it was your responsibility to check the dates), but I think you can at least raise it and see what happens.
Caveat: If this results in them not being willing to book late returns for you in the future, will you regret having raised it? If so, skip it and just check the dates religiously in the future.
5. Calling students “clients” when moving out of teaching
I’m a teacher looking to move to a different profession, and I am seeing some advice about the language to use when “translating” experience as a teacher to careers outside of education. Some of it makes sense — for instance, not using abbreviations that are often used in education but instead spelling out these things (ex. Learning Management System). Some of it, though, feels akin to bending the truth or lying — suggestions like replacing “students” with “clients” and “parents” with “stakeholders” on a resume. This feels disingenuous to me and like something a hiring manager would roll their eyes at. Does it matter one way or the other?
Yeah, do not call students “clients” or parents “stakeholders.” Hiring managers will indeed roll their eyes at it, and it will seem like you’re trying to paint the experience as something it’s not (when it’s perfectly valuable stated as exactly what it is).
French legislators voted 780-72 in favor of an amendment guaranteeing women’s right to abortion access in their Constitution, becoming the first country in the world to do so. What do you think?
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)
Oregon has joined the small but growing list of states that have passed right-to-repair legislation. Oregon's bill stands out for a provision that would prevent companies from requiring that official parts be unlocked with encrypted software checks before they will fully function.
Bill SB 1596 passed Oregon's House by a 42 to 13 margin. Gov. Tina Kotek has five days to sign the bill into law. Consumer groups and right-to-repair advocates praised the bill as "the best bill yet," while the bill's chief sponsor, state Sen. Janeen Sollman (D), pointed to potential waste reductions and an improved second-hand market for closing a digital divide.
"Oregon improves on Right to Repair laws in California, Minnesota and New York by making sure that consumers have the choice of buying new parts, used parts, or third-party parts for the gadgets and gizmos," said Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org, in a statement.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
Almost a decade ago, I found out my fiancé (who I had been with for many years) was still with Sarah, the woman he had been dating for years before we got together — the one he told me he had broken up with to date me. It broke my heart and horrified me — I was, in my eyes, essentially his mistress for the entirety of our relationship, and because I did not question certain things enough, I had allowed him to cheat on her with me. I decided shortly after I found out to go to Sarah’s house and tell her the truth.
It went about as well as you’d expect. After she initially opened the door, I quickly and succinctly word-vomited his betrayal, my existence, the seriousness of our relationship, and how I never knew about their continued relationship until a few days earlier. I then told her I was done with him, would have never dated him if I had known he was still with her, and thought she had the right to know what had been going on. She said nothing — seemingly stunned more than anything. After a long pause, she slowly closed the door in my face.
I did email her once more after that to give her my contact information and offered to answer any questions she might have (because I certainly had a ton of questions about how so many years of my life were a lie), but she never reached out and I didn’t want her to feel like I was harassing her, so I left it alone after that. The last I heard, she and my ex had parted ways immediately afterward and she moved to a neighboring state in a field unrelated to her previous business (let’s say that previous business was teapot design). She was a locally renowned teapot designer — which doesn’t pay great, but she had tried hard for years to make it a profitable profession. And in one fell swoop it ended because my ex had stepped out of his relationship with her for one with me.
Fast forward to the present day. I am now working a prestigious dream job at a vaguely tea-related organization in the very Mayberry-esque small town that my ex and Sarah had lived in. Their old house is a short walk away from my new workplace. I have no fears that anyone in town knows of my involvement with her ex — she was a presence in the community and he was not and they did a lot of things very independently of each other, so I actually doubt many people in town even knew my ex really existed. The sale of their house and her business happened so quickly that a lot of people locally didn’t even know she had left for months after she had gone (he moved away at the same time). However, people in the area still know Sarah and remember her skills as a teapot designer fondly.
A few weeks ago I was meeting with a board member of mine over a tea-related project complete with a gala and on-site teapot designing station. He mentioned the possibility of bringing notable teapot designers in to work during the party to add to the experience and specifically name-dropped Sarah.
I was very much caught off-guard, and tried to recover by casually asking, “Oh, I thought she had moved out of state a few years back?”
And then that’s when I got to hear my board member give me the Spark Notes version of what I already knew — “Yeah, things didn’t work out with the guy she was dating — he was cheating on her — and she left. But she still comes back from time to time. She’s giving some design classes at [local nonprofit] in a few months.”
The proposed gala may not happen (this board member tends to come up with grand ideas that don’t always pan out), or may not happen in the way my board member pictured it. However, the whole interaction has sent me spiraling and unlocked a new fear in me: meeting the person whose personal and professional life I ruined in my work setting.
If my board member’s plan does go through, and a gala is organized with Sarah in attendance … what should I do? In my role at this organization, I’m most likely going to be in some form of contact with her at such an event. My last name has changed since we met, but she will probably still recognize my face despite the fact that I’ve aged a bit since our only face-to-face interaction. I also have no idea how she feels about me after all this time. I don’t know if she blames me for what happened and harbors resentment towards me. From the little I know of her, I don’t think she would cause a scene … but I simply do not know.
Should I pretend I’m just meeting her for the first time? Do I have a responsibility to share the situation with my board member and my boss in case something happens during any interaction with her (or to get them to help me stay away from her?) Should I just try my best to just avoid her without explanation to anyone?
I never thought I’d have to deal with my ex’s ex in a workplace setting. The relationship with my ex was very traumatic, and not just because of what happened to Sarah. It took me years of therapy to deal with the fallout of that relationship. This new potential situation is giving me nightmares.
You are catastrophizing!
First, you didn’t ruin Sarah’s life. Your ex is the one responsible for the impact on Sarah, not you. You were only the messenger — and delivered a message she chose to act upon, so for all we know she might appreciate what you said that night you came to her house, regardless of how upsetting it was in the moment. And she might not consider her life ruined at all!
Second, she met you once 10 years ago for a few extremely emotionally-charged minutes. It’s very possible, even likely, that she won’t recognize you a decade later.
But if she does recognize you, the most likely scenario is that everything will be fine. You’re not showing up as Sarah’s new sister-in-law or boss; you’d be a professional contact who she won’t need to work closely with. In fact, since you’re in a small town, she’s already probably aware she could run into you at some point.
We also don’t know if Sarah even cares! It’s been a decade; it’s more likely than not that she’s moved on and your existence in the same room might be awkward but not devastating … or it could even be entirely neutral. It’s extremely unlikely that Sarah will cause a scene. (And for what it’s worth, if I were in Sarah’s shoes and heard someone was worried about me causing a scene over something they weren’t responsible for a decade ago, I’d be taken aback!)
As for what to do …. act the way you would if you were meeting for the first time. Be professional and polite. If Sarah does recognize you, she’ll likely appreciate that you’re not forcing her to engage on a more intense level when she’s in a professional mode.
I don’t think you need to share the situation with your board or the board member either, since it’s so unlikely that there will be fall-out. If this had all happened last month instead of a decade ago, I’d advise you differently (in that case I’d recommend giving them a discreet heads-up) but at this point this is all such old news that you can just treat Sarah professionally and assume she’ll do the same.
“The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously restored Donald Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots, rejecting state attempts to ban the Republican former president over the Capitol riot.” – The Boston Globe
The nation’s temperature is running hot, and tensions continue to flare as US citizens enter an incredibly consequential presidential election year. As such, we feel it is vital that this country’s highest judicial body comes to a decision in this legal matter put before us. After hearing the arguments presented by both sides and considering past precedent, the following ruling is to be upheld:
We, the Supreme Court of the United States, conclude that you do not possess the proper legal authority to simply stop slapping your face with your own hands, while we sarcastically whine, “Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!”
As clearly established in both Dignity and Self-Worth v. Irony and South Carolina v. Bad Faith, citizens are in no position to dissuade themselves from limply smacking their heads with either of their five-fingered appendages—even if we are the ones who grabbed said hand and are currently controlling its motion and movement. We’ve made it clear you don’t possess the right to choose your sexuality, your odds of getting needlessly gunned down in schools, your ability to stave off climate collapse, or what you can read. Why would you get any say in ending a tired, humiliating farce of our own making?
If Americans truly wish to end their soul-crushing loss of autonomy and self-actualization, they should petition their duly elected, career playground pissants to enact legislation that might, and we quote, “quit it already.” This has been the American democratic process for generations, and we Justices are in complete agreement that safely watching your ongoing internal squabbling from an impersonal, perhaps even inhumane, remove is best.
It’s not our responsibility to be moral, empathetic, or even logical; it’s our sovereign responsibility to continue calcifying antiquated, fundamentally flawed laws. That, and not biting the hand that feeds us.
After all… where else would we get the strength to shove your own hand against your cheek, over and over and over again, while the rest of us cackle with sadistic glee?
If you're running a business, you can either invest at being good at your business, or good at Google SEO. Choose the former and your customers will love you – but they won't be able to find you, thanks to the people who choose the latter. And if you're going to invest in top-notch SEO, why bother investing in quality at all?
For more than a decade, Google has promised that it would do something about "lead gens" – services that spoof Google into thinking that they are local businesses, pushing down legit firms on both regular search and Google Maps (these downranked businesses invested in quality, not SEO, remember). Search for a roofer, a plumber, an electrician, or a locksmith (especially a locksmith), and most or all of the results will be lead-gens. They'll take your call, pretend to be a local business, and then call up some half-qualified bozo to come out and charge you four times the going rate for substandard work:
Some of them just take your money and they "go back to the shop for a tool" and never return:
Google has been promising to fix this since the late aughts, and to be fair, it's a little better. There was once a time when a map of Manhattan showed more locksmiths than taxis:
https://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/02/18/google-maps-proves-more-locksmiths-in-nyc-than-cabs/
But GMaps is trapped in the enshittification squeeze. On the one hand, the company wants to provide a good and reliable map. On the other hand, the company makes money selling "ads" that are actually payola, where a business can pay to get to the top of the listings or get displayed on the map itself. Zoom out of Google's map of central London and the highlighted landmarks are a hilarious mix of "organic" and paid listings: the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican, the London Eye…and a random oral and maxillofacial clinic in the financial district:
https://twitter.com/dylanbeattie/status/1764711667663831455
Hell of a job "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful," Big G. Doubtless the average Londoner finds the presence of this clinic super helpful in orienting themselves relative to the map on their phone screens, and it's a real service to tourists hoping to hit all the major landmarks.
It's not just Maps users who'd noticed the rampant enshittification. Even the original design team is so horrified they're moved to speak out about the moral injury they experience seeing the product they worked so hard on turned into a giant pile of shit:
https://twitter.com/elizlaraki/status/1727351922254852182
Now, when it comes to locksmiths, I'm lucky. My neighborhood in Burbank includes the wonderful Golden State Lock and Safe, which has been in business since 1942:
https://www.goldenstatelock.com/
But you wouldn't know it from searching GMaps for a locksmith near me. That search turns up a long list of scams:
https://www.google.com/maps/search/locksmith/@34.1750451,-118.369948,14z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu
It also turns up plenty of Keyme machines – these are private-equity backed, self-serve key-cutting machines placed in grocery stores. Despite Keyme calling itself a "locksmith," it's just a badly secured, overcapitalized, enshittification-bound system for collecting and retaining shapefiles for the keys to millions of homes, cross-referenced with billing information that will make it easy for the eventual hackers to mass-produce keys for all those poor suckers' houses.
(Hilariously, Keyme claims to be an "AI" company):
But despite the fact that you can literally see the Golden State storefront from Google Streetview, Google Maps claims to have no knowledge of it. Instead, Streetview labels Golden State "Keyme" – and displays a preview showing a locksmith using a tool to break into a jeep (I'd dearly love to know how the gadget next to the Slurpee machine at the 7-Eleven will drive itself to your jeep and unlock the door for you when you lose your keys):
It's pretty clear to me what's going on here. Keyme has hired some SEO creeps and/or paid off Google, flooding the zone with listings for its machines. Meanwhile, Golden State, being merely good at locksmithing, has lost the SEO wars. Perhaps Golden State could shift some of its emphasis from being good at locksmithing in order to get better at SEO, but this is a race that will always be won by the firm that puts the most into SEO, which will always be the firm that puts the least into quality.
Whenever I write about this stuff, people inevitably ask me which search engine they should use, if not Google?
And there's the rub.
Google used predatory pricing and anticompetitive mergers to acquire a 90% search market-share. The company spends more than $26b/year buying default position in every place where you might possibly encounter a new search engine. This created the "kill zone" – the VC's term of art for businesses that no one will invest in, because Google makes sure that no one will ever find out it exists:
https://www.theverge.com/23802382/search-engine-google-neeva-android
That's why the only serious competitor to Google is Bing, another Big Tech company (Bing is also the primary source of results on Duckduckgo, which is why DDG sometimes makes exceptions for Microsoft's privacy-invading tracking):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo#Controversies
Google tells us that the quid-pro-quo of search monopolization is search excellence. The hundreds of billions it makes every year through monopoly control gives it the resources it needs to fight spammers and maintain search result quality. Anyone who's paid attention recently knows that this is bullshit: Google search quality is in free-fall, across all its products:
https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf
But Google doesn't seem to think it has a problem. Rather than devoting all its available resources to fighting botshit, spam and scams, the company set $80 billion dollars alight last year with a stock buyback that was swiftly followed with 12,000 layoffs, followed by multiple subsequent rounds of layoffs:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task
The scams that slip through Google's cracks are sometimes nefarious, but just as often they're decidedly amateurish, the kind of thing that Google could fix by throwing money at the problem, say, to validate that new ads for confirmed Google merchants come from the merchant's registered email addresses and go to the merchant's registered website:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security
Search is a capital intensive business, and there are real returns to scale, as the UK Competition and Market Authority's excellent 2020 study describes:
But Google doesn't seem to think that its search needs that $80 billion to fight the spamwars. That's the thing about monopolists, they get complacent. As Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the AT&T operator" used to say, "We don't care, we don't have to, we're the phone company."
That's why I'm so excited about the DOJ Antitrust Division monopolization case against Google. Trusting one company to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," was a failure:
I understand why people want to know which search engine they should use instead of Google, and I get why, "There aren't any good search engines" is such an unsatisfactory answer. I understand why each fresh round of printer-company fuckery prompts people to ask "which printer should I get?" and I understand why "There are only six major printer companies and they're all suffering from end-stage enshittification" isn't what anyone wants to hear.
We want to be able to vote with our wallets, because it's so much faster and more convenient than voting with our ballots. But the vote-with-your-wallet election is rigged for the people with the thickest wallets. Try as hard as you'd like, you just can't shop your way out of a monopoly – that's like trying to recycle your way out of the climate emergency. Systemic problems need systemic solutions – not individual ones.
That's why the new antitrust matters so much. The answer to monopolies is to break up companies, block and unwind mergers, ban deceptive and unfair conduct. "Caveat emptor" is the scammer's motto. You shouldn't have to be an expert on lead gen scams to hire a locksmith without getting ripped off.
There are good products and services out there. Earlier this year, we decided to install a (non-networked) programmable pushbutton lock. I asked Deviant Ollam – whom I know from Defcon's Lockpicking Village – for a recommendation and he suggested the Schlage FE595:
https://www.schlage.com/en/home/products/FE595PLYFFFFLA.html
I liked it so much I bought another one for my office door. Eric from Golden State Lock and Safe installed it while I wrote this blog-post. It's great. I recommend both of 'em – 10/10, would do business again.
(Image: alicia rae, CC BY 2.0; Budhiargomiko, CC BY-SA 4.0; modified)
The Supreme Court Must Be Stopped https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-supreme-court-must-be-stopped/ (h/t Kottke)
Wyden’s Office Gets FTC To Protect The Data Of 1.6 Billion People Tracked By Now-Bankrupt Data Broker https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/04/wydens-office-gets-ftc-to-protect-the-data-of-1-6-billion-people-tracked-by-now-bankrupt-data-broker/
#15yrsago Chinese gold farming https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/mar/05/virtual-world-china
#10yrsago Comment-spammers threaten to sabotage their victims through Google Disavow if the evidence of their vandalism isn’t removed https://ellis.fyi/blog/gordon-sands-threatens-seattle-bubble-google-disavow-comment-spam/
#10yrsago Obama whirls the copyright lobbyist/government official revolving door https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/obama-nominates-former-sopa-lobbyist-help-lead-tpp-negotiations
#10yrsago CIA spied on Senate committee writing damning torture report and Obama knew about it https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/obama-cia-senate-intelligence-committee-torture
#5yrsago Jibo the social robot announces that its VC overlords have remote-killswitched it, makes pathetic farewell address and dances a final step https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/3/4/18250104/jibo-social-robot-server-shutdown-offline-dead
#5yrsago Bowing to public pressure, Coinbase announces it will “transition out” the ex-Hacking Team cybermercenaries whose company it just bought https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvyndw/coinbase-says-ex-hacking-team-members-will-transition-out-after-users-protest
#5yrsago The NSA has reportedly stopped data-mining Americans’ phone and SMS records https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/nsa-phone-records-program-shut-down.html
#5yrsago Facebook forces you to expose your phone number to the whole world in order to turn on two-factor authentication https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/03/facebook-doubles-down-misusing-your-phone-number
#5yrsago America is not “polarized”: it’s a land where a small minority tyrannize the supermajority https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/opinion/oppression-majority.html
Enshittification: How the Internet Went Bad and How to Get it Back (virtual), Mar 26
https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3781006
Wondercon Anaheim, Mar 29-31
https://www.comic-con.org/wc/
The Bezzle at Anderson's Books (Chicago), Apr 17
https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1
Torino Biennale Tecnologia (Apr 19-21)
https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337?aff=oddtdtcreator
Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival (May 5-11)
https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/
Media Ecology Association keynote (Amherst, NY), Jun 6-9
https://media-ecology.org/convention
American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/
Radioactive (KCRL)
https://krcl.org/blog/grist-investigates-doctorow-seed/
The enshittification of music (Music Ally)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh20fD3XXbg
"The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)
"The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).
"Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.
"Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
"How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
"Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.
Unauthorized Bread: a graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025
Today's top sources:
Currently writing:
Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025
Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM
Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM
Latest podcast: The Majority of Censorship is Self-Censorship https://craphound.com/news/2024/02/25/the-majority-of-censorship-is-self-censorship/
This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.
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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reports that he is considering running for leadership of a different country, following 9 years of “getting his feet wet” in Canada. “It hasn’t always been easy, but I really think I’m starting to get a knack for this,” explained Trudeau from his office on Parliament Hill, “It’s like […]
The post Trudeau wondering if he should try being PM of a different country, now that he’s got the hang of it appeared first on The Beaverton.
PARADISE, NV—Announcing their new contract would be “indefinite,” the Sphere at the Venetian reportedly refused to release U2 Monday despite the band fulfilling the terms of their residency. “Yes, you have played your 40 shows, but the laws of man do not apply to the Sphere,” said the 516-foot-wide Sphere in a booming…
GAZA CITY, GAZA—Part of an ongoing mission to provide the struggling population of Gaza with necessary detritus, the United States announced Monday that it had airdropped rubble into the war-torn Palestinian territory. “Over the weekend, the U.S. Air Force dropped 38,000 tons of rubble directly into Gaza to supplement…
THE INFINITE—In a dominant electoral showing that stretched across the unified field of consciousness, author and politician Marianne Williamson successfully primaried President Biden Tuesday in all 63 counties of the Astral Plane, according to cosmic sources. “This win is sure to impact Williamson’s candidacy—not…
COLUMBUS, OH—According to a new study published Tuesday in the Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, researchers at the Ohio State University found that people were most confident while unaware that the fly of their pants was undone. “We found a tremendously strong correlation between walking into a room with…
CLEVELAND—Saying the practice helped put the spark back in their taboo relationship, local couple Brian Tiller and Nora Vaughan told reporters Tuesday that they had been watching porn together to feel more excited about being stepsiblings. “Of course, when we started seeing each other, all it took was Brian asking,…
Hovertext:
As I post this, I'm suddenly worried Kris Wilson did it years ago, and if he did well fuck him for putting me in this terrible position.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
We’ve recently moved into a new office space which is dog-friendly. This is great news for many of our employees, who are able to avoid costly sitters and walkers.
However, one employee, Jane, is really dog-phobic. Today another colleague (Lucille) brought her dog in for the first time. I warned her that Jane was in the office so Lucille stayed out in the communal area with the dog. It didn’t matter; knowing that a dog was on the floor was enough to bring Jane to the verge of tears. She didn’t complain – she’s aware we’re allowed dogs in the office and that Lucille hasn’t done anything wrong – but she was visibly upset and eventually had to move to another floor to work. When everybody, including Lucille and the dog, moved to that floor for Friday drinks (another perk of the office), Jane left.
A few people have suggested we agree as an office not to bring dogs in or (more likely) to check Jane’s calendar and only bring dogs in on days when she is working remotely, which is fairly regularly. This seems reasonable, but the whole office is co-working space and we’re not going to be able to police people who work for other companies taking advantage of the dog-friendly policy.
What should we consider an acceptable level of compromise to ask of employees in order to accommodate Jane and her phobia?
I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. I don’t want to be the one ordering lunch and stocking the kitchen anymore
I’m a woman in my mid 30s and have been working at least part-time since middle school and full-time since earning my graduate degree a decade ago. Between the recession and Covid, I’ve had to change careers a couple times, but I’ve always received good feedback on my work and often comments from supervisors that I should be promoted in some way. The promotions have never really materialized for one reason or another, but not because of my performance.
In my current role I have some important responsibilities (like payroll and benefits administration), but I also still do things like order lunches for management, get the office birthday cake, stock the kitchen with coffee, etc. I’ve been in this role nearly three years and I’m really starting to resent those kinds of tasks. They’re things I did when I interned in my late teens and during first jobs in my early 20s. While I know somebody has to do them and they’re wrapped up in part of my job description, it makes me feel like I’ll forever be viewed as “early career” even though I’m definitely not anymore. Am I selfish for feeling like I’ve outgrown these tasks or am I limiting myself by accepting that my job includes these kinds of things?
I don’t want to fall into the trap of defining people by their perceived job status, but I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels for a decade and not going anywhere.
It’s not so much that they’re inherently “junior level” tasks; it’s that they’re office-admin type tasks. At small organizations, it’s not uncommon to include those tasks in the job description of the person who’s also handling payroll and benefits. You’re certainly not selfish for not being interested in doing them anymore, but you might not be being realistic about whether it’s possible to unload them in your current job, at least not without a formal change to your job description and a logical person to offload them to.
If that doesn’t look likely in your current organization, you’d probably have better luck looking at jobs in larger organizations, where there can be much less of an expectation that you’ll wear multiple hats (although even then, you’d want to look critically at the job description; if it’s a sort of catch-all assistant role, those tasks could pop up again).
2. Can I ask why the friend I recommended wasn’t hired?
I work in software development for a financial company, and my friend works in finance. Her current job stopped offering health care (it’s now all through a “health savings account”), and since my friend has a chronic medical condition and a partner undergoing cancer treatment, she’s looking at other options. I suggested she apply to my company, since there was an opening in one of the financial departments I serve and I knew they were short-handed. We would not be direct coworkers in the same department. I helped my friend update her resume and write a cover letter, sat with her while she filled out the application, and gave her the name of the hiring manager. When I got back to work, I wrote a letter of recommendation for my friend and talked to the hiring manager, and the company called my friend within two hours! We were both really hopeful. However, despite the first few interviews going really well, the week after her interviews she got the message that they had decided to move forward with other candidates. When she asked if there was anything that she could have done differently, or qualifications that could have improved her chances, there was radio silence. Additionally, the job is still open almost two months later.
Obviously, my friend is not entitled to a job, and she’s also not entitled to an answer from them. I know from reading your blog that this is not unusual during the job search process and recruiters and hiring managers are not obligated to answer questions after they’ve decided not to hire you. However, these are people that I work with. I have a weekly, standing meeting with several members of the department my friend applied to, including the hiring manager. Would it be unusual or impolite to ask them the same question she did?
Also, I’ve never recommended anyone for a job before. Was there something that I should have done differently that could have improved her chances? I didn’t want to be pushy, because I thought if I looked too eager it would hurt my friend’s chances. So, I wrote her a job recommendation, sent a note to the hiring manager with the recommendation attached, and filled out my company’s referral form. I didn’t mention it to them afterwards. I feel very guilty because the day that my friend had an interview with the hiring manager’s boss, I had a meeting with that same boss, and I didn’t mention it to the boss because I wasn’t sure if it would be impolite or gauche. In the future, should I do something differently? How much leverage do I have?
It’s okay to ask for feedback about a friend you referred if it’s clear you’re asking so you can make better recommendations in the future. But if it comes across like you’re asking just so you can relay the info to your friend, that’s an overstep. If the hiring manager wanted to relay that info to your friend, they would have already done it when she asked (and you could inadvertently cause problems if you relay it without their okay, particularly if something is inartfully worded because they think they’re talking casually to a coworker rather than formally to a candidate).
It’s fine to say, “Anything you can tell me about how to better refine recommendations I’m sending you?” Some hiring managers will understand you’re curious about what happened with your friend and will tell you; others will figure it’s not really your business and/or they don’t want you passing their unfiltered thoughts back to a candidate and so they’ll give you a vague answer. But it’s usually pretty clear when someone is asking because they want insider info about their friend and not because they want to refine their future recommendations, so in your case I’d recommend leaving it alone.
Lots and lots of people who meet the basic qualifications for a job end up not being hired because of nuanced reasons that you wouldn’t be able to predict from the outside; for example, their skills with X are good but not good enough, or their knowledge of Y isn’t deep enough, or they seemed resistant to taking on Z, or the hiring manager could see they wouldn’t work well with them/the team, or on and on and on. Keep in mind, too, that you’ve never worked with your friend; you don’t know what her “work persona” is like or how strongly suited her skills really were for the role.
I think you’re feeling like you somehow should have been able to clinch the job for her, but that’s not how hiring works. It’s great to make the connection, as you did, but you should go into it knowing that from there it’s out of your hands.
3. Bathroom sign
I work at a small nonprofit that occupies space in a government building. We share a bathroom with municipal staff. The toilets are on the old side and occasionally leave small streaks in the toilet bowl. Two of the women who work in the building (one of my direct reports and one of the municipal employees) have been VERY bothered by this. They made a sign and laminated it, saying “be nice, flush twice.”
Am I overreacting in thinking the sign is too far? It makes me extremely self-conscious about my own bathroom use, and I feel like it’s not their responsibility to address. Should I say something, or should I just let it go?
Let it go. That kind of sign isn’t that unusual in communal bathrooms, and it would be an odd thing to tell them was a step too far. If you see other indicators that they’re obsessing over this — if they start harassing people about their bathroom usage or something like that — that’s something you’d need to address with the person who works for you, but otherwise this is not something you need to intervene on.
4. Should I explain I’m withdrawing from a hiring process because of the low salary?
I recently applied for a leadership position because it seemed like a good next step for me, career-wise. The position did not have a salary listed, but there was an estimate on LinkedIn on the posting. I was really excited when I got offered an interview, but I learned in the invitation that the salary was significantly lower than the estimated range on the job board. Because of this, I plan to decline the interview, as I am making more in my current position as a mid-level manager. Do you have any advice about if it is worth letting the hiring manager know that salary is the reason I am withdrawing?
Yes, please do! Losing good candidates over salary is part of the way employers get the message that the salary they’re offering is out of sync with the market.
Obviously, if only one person says that and they’re able to hire someone they’re excited about, it might not have an impact. But if they’re losing multiple candidates they were interested in, it’s likely to be seen as useful data. It could even help the hiring manager make the case for a higher budget for the role.
5. Interviewer keeps contacting me to “keep in touch”
Several months ago, I made it to the second round of interviews for a state agency. I did not get the job, but I later accepted an offer from a different state agency.
Soon afterward, one of the interviewers from the first agency reached out about a new job opening, and I let him know I had accepted another offer. He congratulated me and wished me luck. Since then, he has reached out a couple of times asking to meet up and checking to see how my new job was going.
I was unable to meet up with him the first time he asked, but he has continued checking in. This most recent time he mentioned that his agency might have an opening soon. I told him I appreciated him thinking of me, but that I’m happy in my current role and plan to stay here for the foreseeable future. Each time he reaches out, he tells me to “keep in touch,” and he said that again this time. Why would I keep in touch with him? I can see reaching out if I decide on a career change, but keeping in touch seems weird.
I’m wondering what the proper response would be from me. Is it normal for an interviewer to keep reaching out even after a candidate has accepted another job?
It’s possible he genuinely thought you were great and wants to keep you in his pipeline of potential candidates for the future, or you’re just someone he wants in his professional network. It’s also possible his interest isn’t professional at all and he’s angling for a date or similar.
Either way, your response the last time — that you’re in happy in your current role and plan to stay there for the foreseeable future — was perfect. If he continues to contact you, you’re free to ignore him if you want to!
According to "the greater internet fuckwad theory," the ills of the internet can be traced to anonymity:
Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Fuckwad
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory
This isn't merely wrong, it's dangerously wrong. The idea that forcing people to identify themselves online will improve discourse is demonstrably untrue. Facebook famously adopted its "real names" policy because Mark Zuckerberg claimed to believe that "Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity":
https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/05/14/facebook-and-radical-transparency-a-rant.html
In service to this claimed belief, Zuckerberg kicked off the "nym wars," turning himself into the sole arbiter of what each person's true name was, with predictably tragicomic consequences:
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/
Facebook is, famously, one of the internet's most polluted reservoirs of toxic interpersonal conduct. That's not despite the fact that people have to use their "real" names to participate there, but because of it. After all, the people who are most vulnerable to bullying and harassment are the ones who choose pseudonyms or anonymity so that they can speak freely. Forcing people to use their "real names" means that the most powerful bullies speak with impunity, and their victims are faced with the choice of retreat or being targeted offline.
This can be a matter of life and death. Cambodian dictator Hun Sen uses Facebook's real names policy to force dissidents to unmask themselves, which exposes them to arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing. For members of the Cambodian diaspora, the choice is to unmask themselves or expose their family back home to retaliation:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/facebook-cambodia-democracy
Some of the biggest internet fuckwads I've ever met – and I've met some big ones! – were utterly unashamed about using their real names. Some of the nicest people I know online have never told me their offline names. Greater internet fuckwad theory is just plain wrong.
But that doesn't mean that anonymity is totally harmless. There is a category of person who reliably uses a certain, specific kind of anonymity to do vicious things that inflicts serious harm on whole swathes of people: corporate bullies.
Take Tinyletter. Tinyletter is a beloved newsletter app that was created to help people who just wanted to talk to others, without a thought to going viral or getting rich. It was sold to Mailchimp, which was sold to Intuit, who killed it:
https://www.theverge.com/24085737/tinyletter-mailchimp-shut-down-email-newsletters
Tinyletter was a perfect little gem of a service. It cost almost nothing to run, and made an enormous number of peoples' lives better every day. Shutting it down was an act of corporate depravity by some faceless Intuit manager who woke up one day and said "Fuck all those people. Just fuck them."
No one knows who that person was. That person will never have to look those people in the eyes – those people whose lives were made poorer for that Intuit executive's indifference. That person is the greater fuckwad, and that fuckwaddery depends on their anonymity.
Or take Pixsy, a corporate shakedown outfit that helps copyleft trolls trick people into making tiny errors in Creative Commons attributions and then intimidates them into handing over thousands of dollars:
Copyleft trolling is an absolutely depraved practice, a petty grift practiced by greedy fuckwads who are completely indifferent to the harm they cause – even if it means bankrupting volunteer-run nonprofits for a buck:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/
Pixsy claims that it is proud of its work "defending artists' rights," but when I named the personnel who signed their names to these profoundly unethical legal threats, Pixsy CEO Kain Jones threatened to sue me:
The expectation of corporate anonymity runs deep and the press is surprisingly complicit. I once spent weeks working on an investigative story about a multinational corporation's practices. I spent hours on the phone with the company's VP of communications, over the course of many calls. When we were done, they said, "Now, of course, you can't name me in the article. All of that has to be attributed to 'a spokesperson.'"
I was baffled. Nothing this person said was a secret. They weren't blowing the whistle. They weren't leaking secrets. They were a corporate official, telling me the official corporate line. But they wouldn't sign their name to it.
I wrote an article about this for the Guardian. It was the only Guardian column any of my editors there ever rejected, in more than a decade of writing for them:
https://memex.craphound.com/2012/05/14/anodyne-anonymity/
Given the press's deference to this anodyne anonymity, it's no wonder that official spokespeople expect this kind of anonymity. I routinely receive emails from corporate spokespeople disputing my characterization of their employer's conduct, but insisting that I not attribute their dubious – and often blatantly false – statements to them by name.
These are the greater corporate fuckwads, who commit their sins from behind a veil of anonymity. That brand of bloodless viciousness, depravity and fraud absolutely depends on anonymity.
Mark Zuckerberg claimed that "multiple identities" enabled bad behavior – as though it was somehow healthy for people to relate to their bosses, lovers, parents, toddlers and barbers in exactly the same way. Zuckerberg's motivation was utterly transparent: having "multiple identities" doesn't mean you "lack integrity" – it just makes it harder to target you for ads.
But Zuckerberg couldn't enshittify Facebook on his own. For that, he relies on a legion of anonymous Facebook managers. Some of these people undoubtably speak up for Facebook users' interests when their colleagues propose putting them in harm's way for the sake of some arbitrary KPI. But the ones who are making those mean little decisions? They absolutely rely on anonymity to do their dirty work.
Mastodon for Apple II (][+, //c, IIe, and IIgs) https://www.colino.net/wordpress/en/mastodon-for-apple-ii/ (h/t Nelson Minar)
#20yrsago The Orkut Song https://web.archive.org/web/20050910045938/http://sims.berkeley.edu/~dmb/orkut/orkutworld.mp3
#15yrsago Doctors force patients to sign gag orders forbidding online reviews https://www.montereyherald.com/2009/03/04/doctors-using-patient-waivers-to-curb-negative-online-reviews/
#10yrsago Edward Snowden to speak at SXSW https://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP27783
#10yrsago Delhi police lost password for complaints portal in 2006, haven’t checked it since https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/vigilance-complaints-pile-up-as-delhi-police-doesnt-know-password/
#5yrsago London councils plan to slash benefit payments with an “anti-fraud” system known to have a 20% failure rate https://news.sky.com/story/thousands-face-incorrect-benefit-cuts-from-automated-fraud-detector-11651031
#5yrsago History is made: petition opposing the EU’s #Article13 internet censorship plan draws more signatures than any petition in human history https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet
#5yrsago The People’s Republic of Walmart: how late-stage capitalism gives way to early-stage fully automated luxury communism https://memex.craphound.com/2019/03/05/the-peoples-republic-of-walmart-how-late-stage-capitalism-gives-way-to-early-stage-fully-automated-luxury-communism/
#5yrsago BATHDOOM: A Doom level based on a terrible bathroom remodel https://twitter.com/dietinghippo/status/1102153605899927556
#1yrago They’re still trying to ban cryptography https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/
Enshittification: How the Internet Went Bad and How to Get it Back (virtual), Mar 26
https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3781006
Wondercon Anaheim, Mar 29-31
https://www.comic-con.org/wc/
The Bezzle at Anderson's Books (Chicago), Apr 17
https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1
Torino Biennale Tecnologia (Apr 19-21)
https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337?aff=oddtdtcreator
Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival (May 5-11)
https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/
Media Ecology Association keynote (Amherst, NY), Jun 6-9
https://media-ecology.org/convention
American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/
Radioactive (KCRL)
https://krcl.org/blog/grist-investigates-doctorow-seed/
The enshittification of music (Music Ally)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh20fD3XXbg
"The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)
"The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).
"Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.
"Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
"How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
"Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.
Unauthorized Bread: a graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025
Today's top sources: Waxy (https://waxy.org/).
Currently writing:
Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025
Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM
Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM
Latest podcast: The Majority of Censorship is Self-Censorship https://craphound.com/news/2024/02/25/the-majority-of-censorship-is-self-censorship/
This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.
Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):
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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla
Ithaca, N.Y., wants to eliminate greenhouse gasses by 2030 — 20 years faster than the rest of the country. But even in this liberal city meeting climate targets is harder than expected.
(Image credit: Jeff Brady)
Summary: Houston will see at least some scattered showers today, with the slight potential for some thunderstorms. Tuesday looks warm (almost hot) and sunny, and should be our warmest day of 2024 so far. After that we’ll be warm and mostly cloudy until the weekend, when conditions turn cooler.
Fog is present along and near the coast this morning as dewpoints and temperatures are the same, in the upper 60s. It will dissipate by mid-morning. High temperatures today will reach about 80 degrees, with persistent cloud cover. The big question for today is rainfall. There should be plenty of moisture available, but overall conditions are not ideal. What you can probably expect is scattered, light showers this morning. This afternoon, with daytime heating, some stronger thunderstorms will be possible, but these should be scattered to isolated. The bottom line is that half the area may see no rain at all, but a few pockets probably could see heavy showers and lightning. Overall, the potential for stronger showers today appears to be slightly higher along and north of Interstate 45.
Temperatures will be plenty mild this evening heading into the rodeo, in the low 70s. The concern, discussed above, is the potential for showers and thunderstorms. Overall the odds are fairly low, probably 20 percent or less, this evening before, during, or after the show. But this is not zero, so please be weather aware. Low temperatures tonight will drop into the mid-60s, so it will be mild after the show.
For those who want sunshine and heat, Tuesday is the day. As Matt described last week, we’re going to see a decaying front push into Houston that will bring some slightly drier air (but no cooling). This, combined with mostly sunny skies, will allow high temperatures to pop. Right now the most likely outcome is highs in the mid-80s, but a few locations could push toward 90 degrees. Regardless it’s going to feel very warm for early March. Lows on Tuesday night will drop into the low to mid-60s.
This looks to be a partly sunny day in the low 80s, with another mild night.
A few more clouds should help to limit highs to the upper 70s. Some low shower chances return later on Thursday and Thursday night.
We’ll see another chance of showers on Friday ahead of a cold front. At this point I’m not convinced how widespread precipitation will be, so I’ll say that about half of the region will at least see some light rain. But we’ll see. Look for highs around 80 degrees with drier air arriving sometime during the daytime with the front. Overnight lows drop to around 60 degrees.
The weekend will be for those who like cooler conditions. Highs both days will likely range from 65 to 70 degrees, with a mix of sunshine and clouds. Rain chances look low to non-existent. Lows temperatures will bottom out at around 50 degrees in Houston, with 40s possible for inland areas.
We’ll see a warming trend heading into the middle of next week, with highs getting back into the 70s. Some decent rain chances return by around Wednesday or so.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Can I ask for a salary cut?
Can I ask for a salary reduction if I feel that I’m overpaid? I currently make $140k/year salary in a tech job, but I feel that I am only worth $60k. I have my house and car paid off, and I have plenty of money in savings. I can live very comfortably on $60k per year. I am single, never married, no kids, and I plan to remain as such for the rest of my life. I don’t need all the money they are paying me, and I feel that the company is wasting it.
Nope. Companies don’t pay based on what your expenses are; they pay based on what the job is worth on the market. Asking for a salary reduction would come across really strangely — and if you say it’s because you feel your work isn’t worth what they’re paying you, unless you’re an obviously top performer you risk that they’ll start scrutinizing your work, looking for these alleged weaknesses.
Also, most companies have salary bands and employees’ salaries need to make sense within those bands. If they significantly lower your salary, it could create salary equity issues across the board. You’d also be creating downward pressure on your coworkers’ salaries too, which I assure you they won’t thank you for.
If you want to make less money, you can go into a lower-paying field … or you can donate a large portion of your earnings to worthwhile charities. But don’t ask for your salary in your current job to be cut.
Related:
should I ask for a pay cut if my work isn’t very good?
2. How do I get out of sharing a bed with my boss?
I am the manager of a small local retail shop. I have worked here in various roles for close to 15 years. Pam, the shop owner, is 70 and close to retirement but does not want to close the shop yet. She has been able to stay in business due to my continued employment. She is at the shop less than I am and I have taken over as many duties as possible for her. She is a very hard person to work for. She has issues letting go of control and has a brusque personality that comes off as very unpleasant to our staff and customers. She is also extremely frugal. I’ve put up with her for as long as I have because I really enjoy my job outside of her.
Traveling with her is a nightmare. I’ve heard horror stories from past employees about having to share a bed with her. She will typically cover meals but she dictates what you can order (as in, she gripes when you order soda instead of water.) On our last work trip, I requested that I get my own room. She only agreed if I paid half of the cost. I was not okay with this at all but went along to keep the peace. I was told that we have to travel again in May. I told her that this time, I’d prefer to share a room instead of paying for myself. (She took the $500 hotel fee from the last trip out of my paycheck.) All of the rooms in the hotel are booked except for one-bed rooms, so that means that I am now supposed to share a bed with her. I know that I probably sound like a frog in boiling water, but how do I confront this issue? I’m a wimp when it comes to confronting her, and I’ve seen enough of her financials to know that there’s not a huge amount of money laying around to book separate rooms while staying cost effective.
For the record: bed-sharing is an outrage. I’m not throwing around that term lightly. This isn’t “well, finances are tight and this will save money.” This is full-on bananapants / not okay / not even a little bit acceptable.
Here’s what to say: “I’m not willing to share a bed. If there are no rooms with two beds, I’ll need the company to cover a separate room for me.” If she gripes and tries to get you to pay for it again: “I shouldn’t have agreed to that last time. This is a business trip that I’m taking as part of my work here, and so it’s a business expense I can’t cover myself.” And if necessary: “Again, I’m happy to go, but I won’t waver on having my own bed. That’s a very normal thing for companies to provide on business travel, and it’s not something I can compromise on. Knowing that, does it still make sense for me to go?”
It sounds like you have a lot of leverage here, so use it! (And really, if the business can’t afford separate rooms — or at least a different hotel that provides two beds, at the bare minimum — then it can’t afford to send you both on the trip, period.)
3. I’m the only one doing a shared task
I am part of a small team that supports a large group of consultants. The consultants coordinate larger projects, and the support staff help with the individual tasks comprising these projects. Our manager assigned us (as a group) standing tasks, plus we have regular meetings where the consultants tell us what is coming down the pipeline and we fit those tasks around that. So we don’t have clearly delineated duties. It’s more like, “This is everything your group needs to do, how it gets divided up is up to you.”
Obviously, some weeks are busier than others. One specific task often falls to me. In the past six months, one coworker has never done the task and the other has done it twice. I have been assigned to other items, so the others really need to step up and start working this task. I have mentioned that it needs to be done (it’s more than two weeks overdue and should be done at least twice weekly), but my teammates always have a reason why they don’t do it (something else is more important, or they say they’ll get to it then never do). I’m frustrated for many reasons too long to write here. Short of tattling to the boss, how do I get them to do their part?
Try being direct: “For the last six months, I’ve been the only person doing X except for two times. I need others to step in and help. Cecil, can you plan on doing it the next few times? And Jane, can you take it after that? I can’t keep taking it 95% of the time.”
If that doesn’t work, you should talk to your boss. That’s not “tattling”; it’s bringing your boss a work issue that’s directly impacting you and your team’s workflow and requires her intervention.
4. Can I use my work computer to look for a new job?
I am currently job searching after being with the same company for almost two decades. My company-issued computer is my only computer as we’re allowed to use it for non-work-related things (within reason) so I do not have a personal computer but I have a personal tablet. Is it wrong to use my work computer to search for and apply for new jobs outside of the company? I don’t really have the funds for a new computer and using a tablet will have limitations, but it seems wrong to use my work computer to look for a new job outside of the company.
I wouldn’t say it’s wrong (especially since you have permission to use your computer for non-work-related things), but it’s a risk. Some companies will monitor what you do on their equipment, even outside of work hours — and even ones that don’t do that as a matter of routine can end up having reasons to look at your computer history (even reasons that have nothing to do with you personally). And while managers should generally assume some of their team might be looking around at any time, (a) in reality of some of them bristle when confronted with evidence of that, (b) even those who don’t bristle can still mentally write you off after finding out (meaning you won’t be as high on their list for good projects or professional development, and you could end up first on the list if they have to do lay-offs because you’re “planning on leaving anyway”), and (c) it’s not great for your employer to know specifics of your search. You also risk an additional layer of “she must be really checked out if she’s using her work computer to do it” annoyance in there.
You might decide you’re okay with the risk, but you should be aware it’s there. If you do decide to do it, definitely don’t do it on their network or during work hours.
5. Acknowledging bereavement
I work with multiple branches, overseeing work and offering guidance. I mostly work remotely but do visit each branch on occasion. Recently, I was scheduled to make the rounds of some branches. I received an email from my contact at one of them telling me that her father was in the last days of his life and she likely would not be there when I visited. I assured her that I completely understood and that she should definitely take whatever time she needed. Sure enough, she was not there when I arrived, and a condolence card was circulating. I signed the card.
Was that enough, or should I have acknowledged her loss in a more personal matter? We don’t talk often. Most of our communication is via email. I have sent a few work emails since but have not expressed any sympathy. When my parents passed, sometimes it was all I could do to hold it together at work, and well-meaning coworkers could destroy that with kind words. I didn’t want to be the person to do that to her.
If you were her manager, it wouldn’t be enough; in that case you should be checking in more on how she was doing. But as a relatively casual/not-very-frequent contact, you’re probably fine. Still, though, it would be thoughtful to add something like “I hope you and your family are doing okay” to your next email. (You’re right that some people don’t want to talk about it at all at work — but other people feel invisible if a devastating event isn’t acknowledged. Putting something in email that she doesn’t need to respond back to is a reasonable balance.)
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