Leimgruber reviews my book

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

I like this review, posted to Amazon:

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A well written, highly amusing, and cathartic read for anyone who has survived or is facing similar ridiculous/toxic workplace situations or relationships.

The author, Lawrence, brings you right into the trenches along with him as he slogs through challenge after challenge determined to do his best to prevent impending fiasco. Fortunately, its not his first rodeo, so he keeps a life-line on his sanity through the co-author, Natalie; and so the book is born.

The majority of the book contains gritty slice-of-life office stories with an epilogue containing pontification and musing on startup culture and issues within the tech industry. If you’re into these topics, definitely check out Pieter Hintjens’ books “Confessions of a Necromancer”, “The Psychopath Code”, and “Social Architecture” specifically the Collective Code Construction Contract (C4).

While I have never met the author, I have personally worked in the same tech startup scenes with some of the same cast of characters. As such I can report, sadly, that the book is likely free of hyperbole despite its sometimes surreal and farcical depiction of entrepreneurship.

My only suggestion would be to add a mild trigger warning for codepedents, those with C/PTSD, and survivors of narcissistic abuse as the book contains some fairly graphic depictions manipulative behavior and emotional abuse.

Personally, I find the book most interesting *not* for the absurdly lousy management characters, but for giving a glimpse into the mind of a person that accepts this kind of treatment as okay, shoulders unreasonable burdens, and seems repeatably drawn into difficult situations with the corresponding drama that inevetibly ensues.

This begs the question for me (and likely much of this book’s readership):

Why are many talented software developers drawn to solving impossible problems, drinking unhealthy amounts of coffee, neglecting their sleep and personal lives, and constantly trying to fix everthing and everyone around them while ignoring their own psychosocial needs?

Of course, each of us has a lifetime to answer that question for ourselves. ;)