Economics/Geekonomics

Book Review: Enshittification by Cory Doctorow

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

Ever read a book that was very obvious but also a must-read? Well that’s Enshittification by Cory Doctorow.

You’ve probably heard the term Enshittification before because Doctrow made it famous. It’s a term to describe how things get worse and worse as they’re exploited, usually technology companies that were Doctrow’s initial targets. Well this is the book about why everything seems to be worse in the technology world. Companies locked us and their customers in and are squeezing us for every dime.

There’s very little in here that’s a surprise. But at the same time you’ll have a much better grasp about why your phone overheats when you go to web pages, why you get spam, and why your damn dishwasher has an internet connection.

Doctrow dives right in by discussing case studies of companies and services that Enshittified. None of this is going to be news to you in general, but the specific instances he invokes are eye-opening. You probably have at least one tech company you complain about and though it’s bad, it’s actually probably worse.

After giving you some examples that you’re all-too familiar with Doctorow then explores the Pathology of Enshittification. Simply put, there are usually social, government, and financial processes that keep companies from making their products worse. If you break those then, someone is going to start messing with the system, exploiting their locked-in users as much as they can.

Doctrow is pretty much of the opinion that modern corporations would Enshittify immediately, and gotta say, he has a point. Again a lot of this is very obvious, but when you see how many guardrails and limits to keep companies from making you insane for profit are gone, it’s worse than you think. Obvious, just worse than you think.

Then Doctorow does a deep dive on the Epidemiology of Enshittification, the various pathologies and signs and methods. This section introduces a number of useful terms, research, and concepts to help you understand what’s going on – and going wrong. Again, not a lot of it is surprising, but when you see the whole picture the depth is surprising.

To give an example, let’s talk what he calls “The End of Self Help.” We’re all aware of how many companies restricted the ability to repair devices, but the legal restrictions on what you can do with devices and software are probably far more strict than you realize. Repairing, playing with, modifying, or even accessing some devices in an “inappropriate” way can be made impossible or even illegal. Throw in internet-enabled tools and devices, and companies can lock you in and go after people who try to undo said locks.

Think about how that affects business, competition, and removes the concept of ownership. Now take this bit of Enshittification and multiply it by a whole lot of others. As I’ve mentioned a few times a friend decried in 2025 that it seemed technology hadn’t done anything truly new and good for ten years or more, and I kind of agree with her.

(Yay, we have better graphics, great, that’s being used to make Slop AI just like it was used to mine Bitcoin).

Finally, Doctorow looks at solutions. Some of this is the weakest part of the book as the solutions are obvious, but also we face a lot of challenges. Doctorow needed to give people more suggested action paths, communities to get involved in, and so on. The solution are movements and I think he could have done more with that.

And all of this, all of this is familiar. It’s just actually worse and dumber than we expected.

So my recommendation is that this is a must-read book but I’m not sure it’s a must-keep book. You’ll probably “get it” in one read and move on – hopefully after looking at the section on solutions and deciding to take action. So I do recommend buying a hard copy (which can’t be enshittified like a virtual one) and then when done lending it to someone else. Or have your book club do the same.

Let’s make sure this book doesn’t become a timeless classic.

Steven Savage

Alternate Steves: Ohio High Speed Rail

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

My speculation on how different economic and cultural trends could have affected us continues. I’m taking a look at how things may have been different for all of us, using my life as a lens.Today, a fave of mine, the Ohio High Speed rail, which had been speculated on for decades. I wonder what would have happened if it had come to be in the 90s, when I first heard of it. Continuing infrastructure issues were one of my turnoffs living in Ohio.

Let’s check in on another Steve, who watched his home state evolve with high speed rail. What’s he blogging about in alternate 2025?

In college I remember applying for graduate schools, and only one was in Ohio. Turns out I was never going to leave, and I honestly credit the High Speed Rail. Yes, there was a time it didn’t exist, stop making me feel old. At one point we’d killed our rail system.

But anyway here’s my personal take on the Ohio High Speed Rail.

So there I was in the early 90s, guy with a degree, no real plans past that, and living in Ohio. There were a lot of us, judging by the overload of business majors that graduated during my time. You saw some disillusioned people pile up that was for sure.

My idea was to take my psych major and maybe work in city, county, or state services. While I applied for that I made ends meet by temping, which a lot of my friends did. In senior year I’d fallen in with some folks from the college radio station and we’d gotten a place and by place I mean “apartment that was nerd barracks.”

It wasn’t the greatest of course. But somewhere in 92 or 3 I think the High Speed Rail got approved. I hadn’t even heard of it, but I wasn’t as political then.

The High Speed Rail getting approved was both a miracle and obvious. It was a miracle as I’d never felt Ohio was as big on public works as some places, and this was linking Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. It was obvious because most of Ohio is flat and we didn’t have much of an economic identity in my humble, resident opinion.

How it got pulled off was a miracle and there’s a reason there’s multiple books and that one indie comedy film about it. It was several disparate interests coming together, a small amount of bribery and double-dealing, and a grassroots campaign that was wildly entertaining in its own way. It felt a bit out of control, which was really why it worked.

Different elements and different interests didn’t so much conflict as amplify each other. There were businesses who wanted a piece of the rail system. Small towns on the way to the major cities wanted a stop in their city (more on that later). Politicians wanted to look good and of course make Ohio about something as the last time it made history was Neil Armstrong. There was certainly more enthusiasm for it than, say, the Big Dig.

Sorry Boston, no one made a Big Dig comedy. The Big Dig was a comedy.

The economy started changing as soon as things began moving on the rail, and me and my crew, temping away, figured that this was good for us. But also I realized that temping aside, I didn’t want to bounce around from assignment to assignment even if there were more options coming up. So since I foresaw things getting better, despite my limited knowledge, I made a move in my career.

I decided to get out of the field temping and aim at being a recruiter. The way I figured is that Ohio was actually stepping up it’s game and there were going to be opportunities. Why be the guy taking the temp assignments and contracts when I could set them up? Also that was a portable skillset in case I decided to head out of the state.

Also to be honest, government looked less and less interesting. Yeah, we got the High Speed Rail, but as that was going to dominate things for a decade. I’d temped at enough construction companies I knew that wasn’t for me. Also Ohio government may have pulled off the Rail, but uh, it had it’s moments.

So as things spun up to build the High Speed rail, that was my pitch to the agencies I contracted through. “I’ll temp now, but yeah, I want to get into the office,” and just kept learning and pestering people until things worked out and I got an in-office job. I was the guy placing people in positions, which really meant interviewing people, schmoozing, and record-keeping, but I was good at all of those.

Meanwhile around me Ohio was changing. The rail project brought in interest and money, and business – especially tech. It started slow at first, but around the time the Mansfield and Jefferson hookups happened, you could feel things catch fire. It took seven years from start to finish, but things were definitely changing around the three or four year mark.

Me, I happily kept doing recruiting and, pre-emptively, started doing work further and further outside of the Columbus area (it was still called that back then). Why not spend a few days in Cincinnati? Why not do a week in Cleveland? Why not manage some phone interviews. Ohio was getting smaller in a big way.

I also have to shout-out to my very understanding wife who put up with a few times I wasn’t around for a week.

When the rail was working, then things shifted a lot more. Because Ohio had some real advantages but the big one was it was cheap.

You’ve got a state that has connected its major cities and it’s also incredibly low-cost to live in. Land is flat, there’s plenty of it empty, and you can get a house cheaper than you can on the coasts. Sure you put up with snow and maybe not quite the culture you wanted, but if you lived in Columbus, you had options. Plus on the weekends you can travel to other cities to indulge, I dunno, whatever you wanted to indulge.

People moved in because it didn’t cost a lot and you had all the things you need. Also, as an Ohioan, I always felt my state was unappreciated.

One thing that was not foreseen was the “small town/big city” boom. As the lines were building out, smaller towns became a lot more accessible to the big cities. When the rail was done, you could save even more money by not living in the big cities. Mansfield itself, between Columbus (now Armstrong) and Cleveland, was the place for many people. Lebanon made out really well, even if it was more touristy.

I mean I won’t lie, multiple mall towns were happy with the rail, but not all were happy after the rail. But it worked out on average.

At some point the access, the good rep as we actually did the thing, and the low cost had a multiplicative effect. Me, that was the peak, since I got paid more the more people I placed, and I racked up quite a lot of money.

I also burnt out past a certain point. It took about 20 years, but there I was in my 40’s and I had the year but also it was a year. It was time to change, so I slowed down, took a break, and lept to plain-old HR. Ended up at OSU of all places, more set hours, more paperwork over schmoozing, senior recruiting and benefits.

Still in Ohio, which had changed far beyond the economics.

It was demographic. I would not have believed thirty years ago that someone would get the state to change the name of the capitol. But the whole “honor the local son by changing it to Armstrong” campaign worked. I admit “named after murderous lost guy” and “name after first guy on the moon” seemed to be an easy decision, but even I had my doubts.

It was reputational. Ohio wasn’t the place you expected innovation and there we were, being role models. You know multiple rail projects were based on ours? People don’t talk the Bay Area, they talk Ohio, when they talk rail projects. Remember the Canada conference, with the Saskatoon attendees?

Sometimes I wonder what Ohio would be like if it hadn’t happened. But by now it’s hard, I just can’t imagine Ohio without its high-speed rail lines. I can’t imagine not being able to bop over to Blue Ash on Friday to hit the restaurants. Even if I had a tough few years before my break, I can’t imagine not running around between the cities.

But somewhere out there, there’s a Steve who probably left Ohio as not much was happening. He didn’t have a High Speed Rail, and I feel kinda bad for that guy.

Steven Savage

Games, Sustainability, And Expectations

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Lately, I got into the game “Portal Knights,” a charming Minecraft-meets-Action RPG video game. It takes a lot of lessons from various games and combines then for a solo or with-friends adventure in a broken world. There are a few polish issues, but for $20 there’s a lot of value.

The game also has optional downloadable content, from a fancy one with new stuff to simple ones with extra hats or buildable items. It all seems quite reasonable, but then I found online complaints about the game having a “money grab.”

Note that for $20 you get a pretty complete game people are supporing, even though it’s been out in Early Access and complete for over two years. It didn’t seem that way to me, but . . .

This made me think about the challenges that game publishing faces – and how much it costs.

  • First, people expect a supported game. But if you make your money on sales, then you need ways to keep paying for it unless you make a lot of money.
  • Second, many people expect games to be around for a long time – that requires some kind of support model.
  • Third, subscription fees of some kind seem to have long ago faded away.
  • Fourth, DLC and extras are reasonably accepted ways to keep the money coming. Heck, it goes back to Team Fortress 2 and hats.

We have expectations of long-term support and endurance of games in the video game community. But how do we reconcile that with the simple financial need to pay developers? Even when we do that, do we have a way to declare a game just simply “done” and move on?

I thought about this and simply realized . . . I don’t have an answer.

We want a way to get good games. We want a way to support them and have them grow. But the methods we have are piecemeal, or limited, controversial, or misused (loot boxes). There has to be something else out there we haven’t invented yet.

I’d like to see a lot more discussion on media production, monetization, and patronage. It’d be great for games, yes, but it might be something we can extend to other media. Right now, we’re probably too confined by current models, past ideas, and recent failures.

Steven Savage