🪫Showing up in low power mode
Being consistent doesn't mean having to push (or punish) yourself
I've not been doing well the past couple of days, so in an effort to stay consistent while also listening to what I need, this week's newsletter is sans essay. But it still includes a few small acts of rebellion, some capitalist BS and a tiny update from the garden.
I hope you’re taking care of yourself too. 💚
Snails against the machine
Small ways we’re taking back control of our world
Benn Jordan (@BennJordan) shares how he and other musicians are adding subtle interference to their music to confuse AI systems that steal their work for training.
What if people pooled their money and formed an informal ‘grocery store’ to buy the food they’re already buying, but straight from the food supplier instead of through a grocery store middleman?
claude joven (@pigeonboy25) tells us how he uses Amazon as a search engine… and then buys from the small business directly.
Late-stage updates
This week in capitalist whatthefuckery
Once upon a time, Uber promised flexibility and fair pay for its drivers. Welp....
A recent video by More Perfect Union (and an academic paper) uncovers how companies like Uber and Lyft use hidden algorithms to determine how much drivers get paid. And surprise: it’s not consistent across drivers. Two highly-rated drivers offered the same job in the same location can get wildly different pay.
In the video, one driver does an experiment that confirms it: drivers are being underpaid based on criteria they’re not allowed to see, let alone challenge.
Uber calls it ‘dynamic pricing’. Researchers are calling it algorithmic wage discrimination.
And because drivers are classified as independent contractors, the companies get to skip out on paying benefits or providing stability. But when you can’t set your own rates and can’t see how you’re being evaluated, are you really an independent contractor?
This kind of manipulation isn’t limited to ride-share either. Big-name stores like Amazon and Walmart are quietly testing similar ‘dynamic’ pricing systems using digital price tags, setting the stage for price gouging.
The more invisible the inner workings of the system, the harder it is to fight. And that’s the point.
We saw a much smaller (but still strange) example of this algorithmic weirdness at home the other day.
My partner and I were both on Uber Eats, looking at the same restaurant on different devices – he was on a laptop, not logged in, and I was using the app on my phone.
One item we’d ordered before had different ratings depending on who was looking. On my phone, it was tagged as ‘#1 most rated’ with a higher average rating. On his device? No tag, lower rating.
It’s a small thing, but it stuck with me. If something as basic as a menu rating can change based on who's looking, what else is being quietly manipulated behind the scenes?
Shiny things from the curio cabinet
Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share
I have good news – the robin fledgling has been spotted in our garden again!
Well, a robin fledgling. No idea if it's the same one we saw before. But it still brought me so much joy because this one can fly now!
It felt like a reminder to my anxious brain that the worst-case scenario doesn’t always happen. Sometimes things just... work out.
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Great insight. And the pricing thing is only going to get worse, as retailers can better judge how desperate we are to buy something, and how much we can afford to pay, they’ll get as much money out of us as they can. I don’t buy from Amazon, and I quit using Gmail, but the surveillance economy gets more unified all the time, and I don’t think I’m escaping much of it.
As Cory Doctorow says, the last privacy legislation that congress passed was to prevent video stores from sharing what we rented, not exactly relevant today.