This is truly one of the dumbest things we’ve ever made.
The cover features a sad soon-to-be-divorced man, hated by his barber and desperate for approval, on a wave board and carrying an American flag, riding an atomic bomb on his way to lick some fascist’s boots. Man, he can’t get there fast enough!
The typography is appalling, practically illegible. And the form factor is small, like a common laborer—or even a socialist!—could carry it in their back pocket!
The shitty pulp edition of Ruined by Design is now available at Bookshop and other fine (and not so fine) online establishments. Do you need it? You do not. Do you want it? You absolutely fucking do. It’s SO stupid. Also, it’s $12.
The nice version is here, and if you actually want to, you know—read it—that’s the one to get. But if you already have it, get this one. You will love it, and you’ll be contributing to people making weird shit.
WHAT’S NEW IN THE 2025 SHITTY PULP EDITION?
I mean, the cover’s amazing.
In all seriousness, a few long overdue language changes:
Since this book was written in 2015, the word “gatekeeping” has changed into a negative (more likely it always was, and my own biases took too long to see it). That’s been corrected.
Black is now capitalized when referring to people.
“Dark patterns” which was racist (again, I wish I had seen this sooner) has been replaced by “deceptive patterns.”
(These changes also carried through to the proper paper back.)
We actually get paid a fair share of every book sale now because we’re publishing ourselves. And you, my beloved, are supporting independent publishing.
What’s special about the shitty pulp edition?
It’s printed like ass.
WHERE CAN I BUY IT?
You can buy it online from your favorite retailer using the links right on this page. You can also walk into your local and ask them to order it, it’s in the Ingram database. You can even tell them how excellent it is and suggest they order a few to keep in stock.
(Also available at your local 💩m💩zon,
but fuck them.)
“…a childish attempt. I was excited to hear logical arguments but all I got was ‘this is crap, that is crap, please please do the right thing. Big companies are monsters.’””