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phoinix | Staff 26.9K Views
Sep 3, 2026 8:06 AM

Ensh*ttification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse & What to Do (eBook)

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Various Digital Retailers have Ensh*ttification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (eBook) by Cory Doctorow on sale for $3.99.

Thanks to Deal Hunter phoinix for posting this deal.

Note, must purchase from the available digital retailers listed

Available from: About this book:
  • Author: Cory Doctorow
  • Print Length: 353 pages
  • Winner of the 2026 Locus Award for Nonfiction
  • Ensh*ttification: It's not just you - the internet sucks now. It's been ensh*ttified. That was no accident, and it's not gonna fix itself. Here's how we'll disensh*ttify it so we can have a new, good internet.
  • We are all living through the Ensh*ttocene - the Great Ensh*ttening - a time in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are being turned into giant piles of sh*t. It's frustrating. Demoralizing. Even terrifying
  • The once-glorious internet has degenerated into 'platforms' that rose to dominance because they delivered convenient and delightful services efficiently and reliably. But once we were locked in to those services, the tech bosses turned on us, relying on our dependency to keep us using the services even as they got worse and worse. The platform bosses did the same to the companies that had flocked to their services to sell stuff to us. Once we were all locked in - businesses and users - the tech companies stripped out all utility, save the bare minimum needed to stave off total collapse
  • In Ensh*ttification, Cory Doctorow shows us where it comes from: not the iron laws of economics, or the great forces of history, but specific policy choices made by powerful people who ignored every warning about the consequences of those choices. These are choices that can be undone. Ensh*ttification is a Big Tech disassembly manual, a road map for the seizure of the means of computation. It is a diagnosis, and it is a cure

Editor's Notes

Written by Discombobulated | Staff
  • At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied
  • Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
  • If you're not a student, there's also a free 1-Month Amazon Prime trial available.

Original Post

Written by phoinix | Staff
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Various Digital Retailers have Ensh*ttification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (eBook) by Cory Doctorow on sale for $3.99.

Thanks to Deal Hunter phoinix for posting this deal.

Note, must purchase from the available digital retailers listed

Available from: About this book:
  • Author: Cory Doctorow
  • Print Length: 353 pages
  • Winner of the 2026 Locus Award for Nonfiction
  • Ensh*ttification: It's not just you - the internet sucks now. It's been ensh*ttified. That was no accident, and it's not gonna fix itself. Here's how we'll disensh*ttify it so we can have a new, good internet.
  • We are all living through the Ensh*ttocene - the Great Ensh*ttening - a time in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are being turned into giant piles of sh*t. It's frustrating. Demoralizing. Even terrifying
  • The once-glorious internet has degenerated into 'platforms' that rose to dominance because they delivered convenient and delightful services efficiently and reliably. But once we were locked in to those services, the tech bosses turned on us, relying on our dependency to keep us using the services even as they got worse and worse. The platform bosses did the same to the companies that had flocked to their services to sell stuff to us. Once we were all locked in - businesses and users - the tech companies stripped out all utility, save the bare minimum needed to stave off total collapse
  • In Ensh*ttification, Cory Doctorow shows us where it comes from: not the iron laws of economics, or the great forces of history, but specific policy choices made by powerful people who ignored every warning about the consequences of those choices. These are choices that can be undone. Ensh*ttification is a Big Tech disassembly manual, a road map for the seizure of the means of computation. It is a diagnosis, and it is a cure

Editor's Notes

Written by Discombobulated | Staff
  • At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied
  • Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
  • If you're not a student, there's also a free 1-Month Amazon Prime trial available.

Original Post

Written by phoinix | Staff

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74 Comments

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Sep 4, 2026 9:59 AM
6.3K Comments
Joined Jul 2017
Luigis3rdcousinSep 4, 2026 9:59 AM
6.3K Comments
Quote from Quality-Learing View quoted comment :
Things get worse for the rest of us when people abuse goodwill
Speaking of goodwill, I tried taking several good will bought items back to goodwill recently and they told me it was trash and they wouldn't take it lol
1
Sep 4, 2026 10:29 AM
3 Comments
Joined Mar 2018
LeoT9946Sep 4, 2026 10:29 AM
3 Comments
Almost everything lasts longer when it gets documented.

Lightbulbs have rated hours. Cars have mileage. Buildings have estimated lifespans.

Humans don't have a sensor that tells us how much longer something will last. So instead, we measure quality indirectly by how often we have to replace things when they break.

But you know what else makes you replace things more frequently, besides declining quality?

Owning more shit.
5
Sep 4, 2026 11:04 AM
107 Comments
Joined Sep 2014
tozerbSep 4, 2026 11:04 AM
107 Comments
Quote from armedmetallica View quoted comment :
So is that why ranch sauce is watered down?
They call it ranch water now
1
1
Sep 4, 2026 12:18 PM
388 Comments
Joined Jan 2017
BarnabyjonesSep 4, 2026 12:18 PM
388 Comments
You guys know that if you fall asleep on the remote now you can sign yourself up for reoccurring subscription that charge your credit card? Ask me how I know.
1
Sep 4, 2026 12:20 PM
388 Comments
Joined Jan 2017
BarnabyjonesSep 4, 2026 12:20 PM
388 Comments
Quote from mrquality5 View quoted comment :
What irks me most about Prime Video ads, is they aren't personalized. Amazon has more data about the shit I buy than anyone so serve ads that make sense for me of things I'm likely to buy based on my history!!Instead it's just Ozempic, Jardiance, Skyrizi, Rinvoq, Dupixent, Wegovy, Zepbound, Rexulti, Vraylar, Caplyta, Tremfya and on and on and on and on...
Hmm now ask yourself why would they do that, and assume you are not smarter then them.
1
Sep 4, 2026 1:28 PM
126 Comments
Joined Jan 2019

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Pro
Sep 4, 2026 1:40 PM
688 Comments
Joined Oct 2006
cathmandan
Pro
Sep 4, 2026 1:40 PM
688 Comments
Quote from mrquality5 View quoted comment :
What irks me most about Prime Video ads, is they aren't personalized. Amazon has more data about the shit I buy than anyone so serve ads that make sense for me of things I'm likely to buy based on my history!!Instead it's just Ozempic, Jardiance, Skyrizi, Rinvoq, Dupixent, Wegovy, Zepbound, Rexulti, Vraylar, Caplyta, Tremfya and on and on and on and on...
I understand your argument, but there's not an ad made that will make me watch it.

When they come on, I mute the TV and spend two minutes doing anything but watching whatever crap they wanted me to see.
1

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Sep 4, 2026 3:00 PM
142 Comments
Joined Aug 2014
gmr2048Sep 4, 2026 3:00 PM
142 Comments
Quote from funnyperson1 View quoted comment :
Buy this from Bookshop.org to get the DRM free version, it's what Doctorow would want you to do (he's been a staunch anti-DRM advocate).
Interestingly the book description on Amazon specifically says: "At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied."

I'm all for supporting authors, but the difference between a $27 ebook and the same ebook at $4 is significant.
Sep 4, 2026 3:08 PM
42 Comments
Joined May 2024
mrquality5Sep 4, 2026 3:08 PM
42 Comments
Quote from cathmandan View quoted comment :
I understand your argument, but there's not an ad made that will make me watch it. When they come on, I mute the TV and spend two minutes doing anything but watching whatever crap they wanted me to see.
I do the same and i check SD in between Wink. and I know they get a shit ton more money from pharma ads but i still find it annoying.
Sep 4, 2026 3:54 PM
2.3K Comments
Joined Aug 2011
psychismSep 4, 2026 3:54 PM
2.3K Comments
Quote from cathmandan View quoted comment :
I understand your argument, but there's not an ad made that will make me watch it.

When they come on, I mute the TV and spend two minutes doing anything but watching whatever crap they wanted me to see.
Hook any device that can download Brave browser to your TV and watch/listen to everything through Brave instead. You'll never see or hear an ad again.
1
Sep 4, 2026 5:33 PM
953 Comments
Joined Dec 2012
dj24Sep 4, 2026 5:33 PM
953 Comments
Quote from cathmandan View quoted comment :
I understand your argument, but there's not an ad made that will make me watch it.

When they come on, I mute the TV and spend two minutes doing anything but watching whatever crap they wanted me to see.

Couldn't take it anymore.. That's why I finally said 'f**k it, got myself a Vsee and never looked back.

https://www.theverge.com/streamin...ming-boxes
1
Sep 4, 2026 7:58 PM
16 Comments
Joined Dec 2018
Mark9913Sep 4, 2026 7:58 PM
16 Comments
The move to digital media played a big part in what this book is about. So it figures it'd be an ebook.
Sep 4, 2026 8:16 PM
4.1K Comments
Joined Jul 2019
Gb1908Sep 4, 2026 8:16 PM
4.1K Comments
Quote from Retailnot4me View quoted comment :
Amazon is the best example of this word. They have YouTube videos how they have slowly gotten worse.
Amazon tried to get 4 billion from nyc, fark amazon.. you could have put the workers on welfare and benefits for the rest of their lives for 4 billion dollars... could have paid off every regular home owner with a mortgage in LIC and still have enough for a month of groceries for everyone in nyc. Amazon pays ZERO in local, state, and federal taxes.
Sep 4, 2026 8:45 PM
2.1K Comments
Joined Mar 2007
anubis57Sep 4, 2026 8:45 PM
2.1K Comments
Quote from shark974 View quoted comment :
yeah it's called the EPA lol. Cars, appliances, you name it.

Cars are forced to have all kinds of things to choke their engines off and make them run worse to supposedly get .1 more miles per gallon, its why new cars with turbos, 10 speed transmissions ordered by the EPA are unreliable junk.


EPA turned me into a Newt! nod
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Sep 4, 2026 8:51 PM
166 Comments
Joined Apr 2005
luminusSep 4, 2026 8:51 PM
166 Comments
Having worked with Cory for the last decade, the book is going to tell you that large platforms have followed a consistent pattern of behavior that doesn't have to be tolerated, legally, technically, or individually.

The concept is relatively simple. But it's easy to both overstate and understate it. It's not just "greed made things worse," it's: ad-based profit creates free products that cater to users, then businesses, then have a captured audience of both businesses and users thanks to technical lock-in, and begin to squeeze profit out of every area they can because they are not beholden to a customer as long as there is no ability for real competition, which is what most regulation of tech actually does—limit new entrants into the field by raising the bar for what it costs to allow user-generated content, for example.

These problems all have solutions. They work together and in parts. What's most worth reading are Cory's actual solutions to these problems, which include, but are much much larger than "using a different service."

Just like the path to socialism isn't "buy less," the path to undoing what's happened to internet platforms over two decades isn't "don't pay for crap." Neither is it "if it's free, you're the product, so don't be the product."

Unfortunately, these companies are more like power and water utilities (and are beginning to literally become those), and also sewage treatment plants. You're not the product--you're the plumbing and the wiring. And in this extended metaphor, the solution to the crap that's flowing through most of us, which used to be water and power, is everything from requiring pipes and wiring that fits any system, universally, by law, or making it easy for someone to build those universal connectors, and build them better, so we can redirect both where our water and power comes from, and where it goes.

Adversarial interoperability, improved labor power, anti-competitive action, tearing down walled gardens, undoing regulation that burdens new entrants. Things of that nature.

And yes, it is hilarious that this is on sale at Amazon in this way. Cory always releases his work without DRM. He kickstarts the cost for his audio books, for example, so that he can offer them the way he wants outside of the usual systems. He's the real deal. But by all means, $4 is a good price and he's probably gotten enough out of the book by now.

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