I haven't read that since it came out, I wonder if it still holds up. I read Generation X recently and I didn't like it as much as my first read when that came out.
Might be ok for nostalgia but the software development world and the Bay Area/Seattle in general have changed so much that Microserfs would be alien to anyone living there today.
His spiritual sequel, jPod, is quite a bit more fantastical. The CBC made it into a one season tv show that ends on a cliffhanger. It's about time for Coupland to write a third novel on the industry but I'm not sure he's really interested anymore.
i read a lot of Coupland in high school and just before i entered the IT space. i credit him, along with Office Space and Dilbert (BEFORE Scott Adams went full weirdo), for helping me set and maintain realistic expectations :)
My colleagues and I were using the term years before that book. I always assumed he used the title because it was already recognizable slang.
It was just one example of a long tradition of collective nicknames for employees of computer and software companies. For instance, Digital Equipment Corporation employees were "digits", Wang employees were "wankers", and so on.
It’s one of the few “old internet” (1990s) sites around. It’s somehow managed to hold on to the culture it had from back then. IMO, snark is more and more relevant now that ChatGPT is polishing everybody’s writing into a milquetoast mush.
It has always had a snarky tone. I think for the target audience, they have more credibility, since it's obvious they are taking the side of the users/practitioners. It's why they "bite the hand that feeds I.T.".
El Reg does tech journalism that is better than most, but trusts you to both have a sense of humor and to be able to tell the difference between opinion and fact.
I would be very sad if their tone ever changed. Fortunately, that won't happen.
