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Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

25 May

For Your Eyes Only (1981) gameraboy2.tumblr.com/post/652114439…

Read 6 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

24 May

Attention foreigners! Allow me to describe the efficient market process of American private health care!

My daughter got her teeth cleaned.

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Four weeks later, our dental insurer sent us a note saying that they were paying for $235 out of the $236 bill (as our economist friends like to remind us, a co-pay gives the patient "skin in the game" and prevents frivolous teeth cleaning).

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A week after that, they mailed us a check, like, a piece of paper. I paid that check into our checking account and waited.

3/

Read 12 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

24 May

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Podcasting "The Memex Method"; Watomatic, for lower Whatsapp switching costs; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/05/24/how…

#Pluralistic

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https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1396622163742838786

Podcasting "The Memex Method": Reading my inaugural Medium column for my podcast.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1396622163742838786

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1396865373610287107

Watomatic, for lower Whatsapp switching costs: Comcom in action.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1396865373610287107

Read 21 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

24 May

Any discussion of monopolization of the web is bound to include the term "network effects," and its constant companion, "natural monopolies." This econojargon is certainly relevant to the discussion, but really needs the oft-MIA idea of "switching costs."

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(If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:)

pluralistic.net/2021/05/24/how…

A technology has "network effects" when its value grows as its users increase, attracting more users, making it more valuable, attracting more users.

The classic example is the fax machine: one fax is useless, two is better, but when EVERYONE has a fax, you need one too.

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Read 53 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

24 May

A short-film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Encyclopedia Britannica for their Short Story Showcase. (1976) starrywisdomsect.tumblr.com/post/652072849…