Microserfs
by Douglas Coupland · first published 1995
57% recommend39% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Novel about Microsoft employees who leave for a Silicon Valley startup, valued for capturing mid-90s tech culture, its atmosphere and its misfit programmers; suits readers wanting fiction about work and life in tech.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Microserfs is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland. It first appeared in short story form as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of Wired magazine and was subsequently expanded to full novel length. Set in the early 1990s, it captures the state of the technology industry before Windows 95, and anticipates the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. The novel is presented in the form of diary entries maintained on a PowerBook by the narrator, Daniel. Because of this, as well as its formatting and usage of emoticons, this novel is similar to what emerged a decade later as the blog format.
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> What other similar books would you recommend? "Close to the Machine" by Ellen Ullman and "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland occupy roughly the same space in my memory.
on “Ellen Ullman wrote the most precise account of “computer culture” I have seen” ↗Microserfs seems relevant... I know this is what the OP asked, but remember there is more to life than work work work (not to mention, to someone else's business) http://www.amazon.com/Microserfs-Novel-P-S-Douglas-Coupland/...
on “How can you inspire programmers to work longer work weeks voluntarily?” ↗Microserfs - by Douglas Coupland https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2748.Microserfs
on “Ask HN: Best book to gift someone for getting into software engineering?” ↗I also feel Microserfs by Douglas Coupland is a quaint anachronism in 2020. (https://www.amazon.com/Microserfs-Douglas-Coupland/dp/006162...) That was an amazing moment in time and I miss it. I barely touched it but I was…
on “The code I’m still ashamed of (2016)” ↗Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. My parents had a Vic-20 and I'd learned to write some BASIC by reading the books that came with it (which conveniently failed to mention that programming was supposed to be hard…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗…cryptography). I really liked this one, but people I've recommended it to found it dry. - In the Plex (history of Google) - Masters of Doom (John Carmack, John Romero and Id Software) Related Fiction: - Microserfs - The Soul of a New Machine - The Phoenix Project (fiction paired with the Dev Ops Handbook)
on “Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books?” ↗…live in Vancouver and work in the game industry. So, I didn't find it lifeless. And working for a big studio is kind of depressing. So, that's a feature not a bug. I agree that jPod wasn't as good as Microserfs. And as for Coupland writing himself into the story... it's a device with a long history. I think Coupland uses it as a device to answer his critics. For example, in the Gum Thief, the last chapter…
on “From Gen X to Microserfs to JPod” ↗Man, I love legos. I (and Douglas Coupland, via Microserfs) think all good programmers were obsessed with them during at least one point in their lives.
on “Why a School Banned Legos” ↗Read the Cryptonomicon. It's an awesome work of fiction, and it involves lots of geek interests. Alternative suggestions are Microserfs and JPod.
on “Ask HN: What should I read next?” ↗Fans of startup literature, if they haven't already, should also read Microserfs: http://www.amazon.com/review/R357AO45OH8U5S ...but not on the Kindle due to some creative typography.
on “The Anorexic Startup: A Tale of Sex, Drugs, and C++” ↗It's a long time, but isn't this the software they build in the novel Microserfs? If so the idea's been around a long while, so I guess it just doesn't work in real life. It's a great geek novel anyway.
on “Think with your hands: How to get started with Lego Serious Play (2013)” ↗…with him in 1991." OUCH! I have to admit I LOVED Generation X when it came out. I just recently read it again for the first time since the 90s and I must admit, it has not aged well for me. I reread Microserfs too, and that wasn't so bad. Seems like a great read for the HN crowd.
on “Voice in the Wilderness: On Douglas Copeland” ↗That reads like a line out of Microserfs 2 if there ever would be one. Really loved the book and there should be a new version of it.
on “Google is now telling users its apps are out of date. No updates are available” ↗I moved to California to work at a dot com on March 3, 2000. The NASDAQ peaked one week later on March 10. To me that era is captured in Douglas Coupland's novels Microserfs (pre-crash) and JPod (post-crash). JPod was also made into a show for Canadian TV that's a lot of fun!
on “The History of the Dot Com Era” ↗…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws3DJF7MbMU . As a reminder, don't only read books about success, but also failure. "Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure", about an early pen-based platform in the 1990s. And there's fiction, like "Microserfs".
on “Xerox PARC Mesa Programming Language 5.0 (1979) [pdf]” ↗