Enshittification; AI common sense; academia’s crisis: Newsletter 22 October 2025

Enshittification; AI common sense; academia’s crisis: Newsletter 22 October 2025

ByJosh Bernoff

Newsletter 120. Why enshittification is this century’s most important economic trend, getting beyond AI hype and counter-hype, a new imprint for Hollis Heimbouch, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Is enshittification reversible? The essayist and novelist Cory Doctorow just published the most significant economic treatise of the Twenty-first Century. It’s called…

How to differentiate your book from the flood of AI-generated crap

How to differentiate your book from the flood of AI-generated crap

ByJosh Bernoff

The self-publishing platform Spines announced cheap packages that will use AI to rapidly edit, design, and publish 8000 books next year. Or perhaps I should use scare quotes around “edit” and “design,” because with AI doing the work, these are only simulacra of actual human creative activities. If you care about your reputation, you must…