The revival effort gained further steam through a connection with Gil Duran, author of the forthcoming The Nerd Reich. Duran, recognizing Borsook as a natural ally in the critique of tech-authoritarianism, became a vocal advocate for bringing Cyberselfish back into print. After a Wired feature on the sociopathic tendencies of tech leaders failed to mention Borsook’s foundational work, Duran took to BlueSky to champion the book. His post caught the attention of New York Times writer David Streitfeld, who began a months-long correspondence with Borsook to document the "death and life" of her work.
The culmination of this groundswell was a feature in the Times on Thanksgiving Day 2025. By that point, the demand for the book had become so intense that all global copies of the original edition had sold out, leaving only unauthorized versions or a decades-old abridged audiobook available to the public. The Times coverage signaled to the publishing industry that Cyberselfish was no longer just a cult classic, but a necessary text for understanding the modern world.
Reflecting on the reissue, Borsook notes the sobering reality of how much the world has changed since she first wrote the book. Cyberselfish was composed in what she describes as a "safer time," an era when freedom of expression felt less precarious and the online harassment of heterodox thinkers had not yet become a standardized tool of political and social intimidation. She admits that, given the current climate of 2026, she might not have had the courage to write the book today.
The nickname Borsook gave her work during its long years of obscurity was "That Damned Book" (TDB). It was a project that had gone through three publishers and left her in significant debt, a burden she carried while watching the industry she critiqued grow into an unstoppable global force. Yet, the "supernatural" accuracy of her rhetoric has turned TDB into a vital historical document.
As the 25th-anniversary edition prepares to hit shelves, the "terribly libertarian culture" Borsook once described as a subculture has become the dominant ideology of the global elite. Her work serves as a reminder that the trends of the present were visible decades ago to those willing to look past the "cathedral of code." For Borsook, the book’s return from the graveyard of lost works is more than just a personal victory; it is a sign that the world is finally ready to listen to a message it spent a quarter-century trying to ignore.
