Microserfs (1995)

Douglas Coupland's fourth book has been the most succesful. Microserfs is a story about young Microsoft employees working in Seattle. This neurotic bunch gets sick of climbing corporate ladder and decide they would be better off on their own. They move to California's Silicon Valley and start their own business and try make their lives worth living.



Microserfs Quote:

"Q: If there were two of you, which one would win?"

The Eight Laws of Multimedia Hiring:

1) Always ask a person, "What have you shipped in the last two years?" That's all you should really ask. If they haven't shipped anything in the last two years, ask, "So what's your excuse?"

2) The "job-as-life phase" lasts for maybe ten years. Nab 'em when they're young, and make sure they never grow old.

3) You can't trsut a dog that's bitten you. You wouldn't want to employ someone who you can steal away from another company in the middle of a project.

4) The industry is made up of gifted techies or smart generalists--the people who were bored with high school--the sort of people the teacher was always telling, "Now Abe, you could get As if you really wanted to, Why don't you just apply yourself?" Look for these people--the talented generalists. They're good as project and product managers. They're the same people who would have gone into advertising in 1973.

5) One psycho for every nine stable people in the company is a good ratio. Too many maniacally-driven people can backfire on you. Balanced people are better for the long-term stability of the company.

6) Start-up companies beware: kids fresh out of school invariably bail out after a few years and join the big tech monocultures in search of stability.

7) People are most ripe for pilfering from tech monocultures in their mid-to- late 20s.

8) The upper age limit of people with instincts for this business is about 40. People who were over 30 at the beginning of the late 1970s PC revolution missed the boat; anyone older is like a Delco AM car radio.

Reviews of Microserfs:

Ed's Internet Book Review Regular, but not bad.
From Alberta Report / Western Report Kind of mixed feelings about the book?
GBN's review A good review, with some online comments.
Critical Mass' review Does this mean that the general public accepts the book also.

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