‘Cyberselfish’ e-book released

For those participating in today’s live chat with Dr. Dave Karpf, click here to join at 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST). You should be able to log in with the link, but the code is 111 (if necessary). If you haven’t RSVP’d yet, please click here.

Notes: This meeting will be recorded for a possible podcast, but we will not use your faces. Please do not use any AI recording or note-taking devices (or you’ll be asked to leave). Thanks, and see you in a few hours from now.

Excellent news: Paulina Borsook’s Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech is now available as an ebook. It features a new introduction by me. You can buy it at this Bookshop link to support independent booksellers and this newsletter. (See other purchase options here.)

Paulina’s work has undergone a big resurgence in the past year as people realize that she presciently warned—three decades ago!—that trouble was brewing in Silicon Valley. While many other journalists and writers were praising tech arrogance as “genius,” she saw through the hype and described late 90s techno-libertarians as men who made “a philosophy out of a personality defect.”

Here’s my interview with Paulina on the Nerd Reich podcast. And here’s a great profile of her in the New York Times.

“Smart and humorous...the shortcomings of these ambitious tech giants ring true even today,” says Craigslist founder Craig Newmark of the book.

Especially today—as SpaceX launches the biggest IPO ever, likely making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire even as he spreads conspiracy theories about elections and stokes racial hatred and violence around the globe.

Book club, anyone? (The print version of Cyberselfish will release in September. Pre-order here.)