In The Baffler, Evgeny Morozov writes about the problems of technology criticism (he thinks it is willfully oblivious to political and social realities), and explains why he’s decided to abandon the profession: “For a long time, I’ve considered myself a technology critic. Thus, I must acknowledge defeat as well: contemporary technology criticism in America is an empty, vain, and inevitably conservative undertaking. At best, we are just making careers; at worst, we are just useful idiots.” At his blog, tech critic Nicholas Carr answers Morozov’s critique: “Morozov has come to believe that the only valid technology criticism is political criticism. In fact, he believes that the only valid technology criticism is political criticism that shares his own particular point of view.”
Recently asked about a quote in The New York Times, Jeb Bush responded: “I don’t read The New York Times, to be honest with you.”
At Vice, novelist Catherine Lacey talks to Renata Adler about her new collection of nonfiction, After the Tall Timber.
Vice media and HBO have announced a new “content partnership.” Vice will now become the primary news source for HBO, and will produce a daily newscast. HBO will extend Vice’s weekly documentary series for another four years.
Amazon is requiring temporary warehouse workers to sign an agreement that prevents them from working for competitors for eighteen months after their jobs with Amazon conclude.
In an excerpt from her forthcoming book of diary entries, Heidi Julavits writes about how she became jealous of “diet mastermind” Dr. Fuhrman, when her husband, the novelist Ben Marcus, began following Fuhrman’s eating advice.