First, The Simpsons are always good for a great line:

“My foolish capering destroyed more young minds than syphilis and pinball combined.”


Second, As someone who has had coffee with almond milk, can confirm:

coffeealmondmilk.png


Third, I feel like Ed Zitron needs his own section in this newsletter at this point:

The entire idea of Office Culture is entirely predicated on trapping people there. It is an inefficient yet satisfying way in which executives and managers find way to extra more labor out of people, with creative measures like “nap rooms” and free food to give them more reasons to stay and work unpaid overtime.

Company culture is if anything an extension of the same tools - it is a mechanism through which the company wields command over the intentions and actions of the worker to squeeze more out of them, and make them feel bad when they disagree with the company. Much like the definitions of why we need to be in the office, it’s an unwieldy blob that is dropped onto workers to tell them that they’re being bad - that they’re missing out because they’re not “in the office,” or “fitting in with our culture,” which usually ends with a manager or executive asking whether someone is “loyal to the company.”

Written on January 30, 2023