Lavinia Marin

On writing philosophy

  • Careless people – by Sarah Wynn-Williams

    This is a book exposing the inner world of Facebook corporate: what it is like to work there, to try to change things from the inside, what are the values of Facebook leadership (spoiler alert: none), and how Facebook sees its impact on the world (spoiler alert: influence for profit, a huge business opportunity). Facebook…

  • Good writing, if you can make it

    I recently read a very nice book that I cannot recommend highly enough: “Good Work If You Can Get It. How to Succeed in Academia” by Jason Brennan (2020) It’s written in a witty and funny style but very realistic. The reality behind the academic training programmes (aka the graduate schools) is grim: almost “80,000…

  • Wonka, our capitalist imaginary

    The recent movie, Wonka (2023), tells us the origin story of Willie Wonka, the owner of the chocolate factory from Roald Dahl’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Since it is a movie for children, it also showcases, with straightforward clarity, some of our taken-for-granted assumptions about work, slavery and sales, i.e. our capitalistic imaginary.…