Book details of 'Microserfs'

Title	Microserfs
Author(s)	Douglas Coupland
ISBN	0060987049
Language	English
Published	June 1996
Publisher	HarperCollins (paper)

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Back to shelf Computer history/fun
Amazon.com info for Microserfs

Score:

virtualbookcase.com score: 4.0   Vote for this book

The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Microserfs':

Reviewer Koos van den Hout wrote:
A book about "life at microsoft" or better "microsoft life" as it seems from the book that having a personal life is not really appreciated there or there is very little time left. The book is quite good at "the people behind the software" and bits about the processes that make microsoft software what it is. I started reading the book with the idea of getting some of my opinions about microsoft and their lack of quality control (marketing is everything) being confirmed, but it goes beyond that. Microserfs (serf is another word for servant) is the right term for how the servants of Bill Gates work. Officially you are not to know who worked on a certain piece of software. But they are all still real people with real feelings, real family life and wishes in life beyond working at microsoft.
Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
Microserfs is not about Microsoft--it's about programmers who are searching for lives. A hilarious but frighteningly real look at geek life in the '90's, Coupland's book manifests a peculiar sense of how technology affects the human race and how it will continue to affect all of us. Microserfs is the hilarious journal of Dan, an ex-Microsoft programmer who, with his coder comrades, is on a quest to find purpose in life. This isn't just fodder for techies. The thoughts and fears of the not-so-stereotypical characters are easy for any of us to relate to, and their witty conversations and quirky view of the world make this a surprisingly thought-provoking book. " ... just think about the way high-tech cultures purposefully protract out the adolescence of their employees well into their late 20s, if not their early 30s," muses one programmer. "I mean, all those Nerf toys and free beverages! And the way tech firms won't even call work 'the office,' but instead, 'the campus.' It's sick and evil."
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