from Hacker News

Enshittification isn't caused by venture capital

by headalgorithm on 1/20/25, 2:32 PM with 3 comments

• by jqpabc123 on 1/20/25, 3:45 PM

  Enshittification is caused by greed and opportunity. Anything that can be exploited for profit will be exploited --- eventually.

  Venture capital is just an enhanced and amplified version of it.

• by Kerrick on 1/20/25, 4:08 PM

  Cory Doctorow's clarification of enshittification as a result of collapsing constraints is worth considering. I'd never before thought of it as an application of the Theory of Constraints.

  Also, the "Capitalism v. Capitalism" mentioned--tech monopolies vs. businesses trapped on their platforms--is well-put. It's always been a part of his talks on enshittification, but few seem to hear that part.

  I'm way too unfamiliar with Bluesky/Atproto to comment, but I liked the motive he described: "why leave 20 million people at risk of enshittification..."