From The Desk of Nerd³ - July 2025 Edition

I got my books back.

As of today, the publishing rights of Fuck Yeah Video Games and The Paradox Paradox have reverted to me. I’m now free to find a publisher that’ll actually pay me for them, which is lovely in a way, and a huge amount of future work in another.

However, the reason I’m not leaping onto YouTube to announce this is that they’ve spelt my name wrong on the official letter confirming this. My name, for those of you who don’t know, is spelled D-A-N-I-E-L. They’ve spelt it… “Becky Holmes.”

Now, Becky Holmes is the writer of Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud, another book published by Unbound. I’m assuming that they simply copied the reversion letter they wrote for Becky, then spent about the same amount of time as they would on their financial planning for my version of it. However, after talking to other Unbound authors in one of the secret meetings that we have, it’s become apparent that multiple people have had the same issue. A very official, very important letter with mistakes in it.

sigh

H.G. Wells once wrote the following in The Wheels of Chance in 1896.

“There is very little deliberate wickedness in the world. The stupidity of our selfishness gives much the same results indeed, but in the ethical laboratory it shows a different nature.”

Which you may know in its more succinct version, Hanlon's razor.

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

It’s a nice thought, pushing aside an aggressive stance for a more understanding one. This person isn’t trying to fuck with me, they’re just an absolute idiot. Maybe the guy next door is just really bad at organising his (still unfinished) extension. Maybe Trump’s right and Jeffrey Epstein’s client list is a hoax. Maybe Unbound just made the same mistake multiple times over in a way that benefits them.

The problem with Hanlon’s razor is, clearly, that’s it’s bullshit. The guy next door is a Grade-A twat, Trump is as guilty as a dog not making eye contact with you after you’ve been out all day and someone has obliterated the couch cushion*, and Unbound can, have, and I’m assuming will always try and fuck me over to throw money at projects as viable as Boeing’s new jet made from a single book of carpet samples. Are these people stupid? Probably. Are they malicious? Obviously.

So, I’ve updated Hanlon’s razor to this new version, Danlon’s razor…

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity, unless they’ve already shown to be capable of malice, in which case it’s malice all the way down.

It’s not as catchy, but it’s a damn sight more accurate.

Until next month,

Daniel xx

*Although, to be fair, JD Vance might also have been behind this.