”(Google holds a patent for a laptop-sanitizing, UV-lit shelf next to the handwashing sinks in the company bathrooms.)”

”That means that when Apple sells you a Penguin Random House audiobook for $25, it sends $20 to Penguin Random House and keeps $5 for itself. But if an indie audiobook store like (the excellent) Libro.fm sells you that audiobook through Apple’s platform, it pays Penguin Random House $20 and owes Apple a further $7.50. In other words, if Libro.fm tries to sell audiobooks through an iPhone app, it loses money on every sale. Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone: Uber and Lyft are exempt from these fees. Enshittifiers stick together.”

It is so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the amount of profit a company receives on identical products can vary based on where the purchase is made. Where and how we shop matters so much and it is exhausting to have to do so much due diligence just to make sure the money I spend goes where I think it does (and even then, there’s probably someone else skimming money off the top).

”Companies abuse you if they can get away with it. That’s the crux of enshittification.”

FACTS. It is so frustrating talking to my dad or other folks in older generations that experienced any sort of “loyalty” from corporations. Now it is just a game to see how much people will put up with and I’m tired of it.

”Sadness might be many things, but it is rarely stupid. The good sadness, I think, is always trying to tell us something very important.” Ngl, I really needed to read that tonight. There is often a voice in my head telling me to stop being sad because I don’t have a good enough reason to be sad but I have truly come to believe my sadness shows me something important about myself or my situation or something else entirely.

So far the book is a bit “preachy” but I’m enjoying it.