Walkaway

by Cory Doctorow

The idea that there wouldn’t be leaders in the race to build a leaderless society offended him in ways he wouldn’t let himself understand.

Stranger, I am a freak and so are you and we’re both kinked by our computing platform.

Say what you will about corrupt capitalism, it can get stuff done, so long as it’s stuff oligarchs love.”

By the standards of their day, they were fucking miracles—every year, the power that once ran the space program migrated into stuff they put into toys.

“You’re going to hate to hear this, but you’re too young to get it. Anything invented before you were eighteen was there all along. Anything invented before you’re thirty is exciting and will change the world forever. Anything invented after that is an abomination and should be banned.

This isn’t anecdote—as you keep telling me, the plural of anecdote is not fact.

‘Don’t work with assholes’ is great advice, but it’s also a duh moment, because if you haven’t figured that out by your second or third team, you might be the asshole.

“The universe hates us. We are temporary violations of the second law of thermodynamics. We push entropy off to the edges, but it’s patient, and it builds, and when we take our eyes off of it, kerblam, it’s back with a vengeance.