4 ms·

The headline writer is a Coupland fan? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs I haven't read that since it came out

The headline writer is a Coupland fan? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs 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.

Computer0 1y ago
Sounds like an interesting book - from someone way too young to have been there.
- GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
  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 :)
jmcphers 1y ago
I don't have a source for this, but I believe the term Microserfs was not minted by Coupland and predates his work. (I worked at Microsoft from 2004 - 2013)
- JohnFen 1y ago
  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.
Mountain_Skies 1y ago
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.
bityard 1y ago
El Reg has always had nicknames for companies and employees. "Microserfs" goes back at least a decade or two. Google == Chocolate Factory, Intel == Chipzilla, Cisco == Borg Collective (pretty sure Broadcom deserves that title these days)

Computer0 1y ago

Sounds like an interesting book - from someone way too young to have been there.

GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
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 :)

jmcphers 1y ago

I don't have a source for this, but I believe the term Microserfs was not minted by Coupland and predates his work. (I worked at Microsoft from 2004 - 2013)

JohnFen 1y ago
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.

Mountain_Skies 1y ago

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.

bityard 1y ago

El Reg has always had nicknames for companies and employees. "Microserfs" goes back at least a decade or two. Google == Chocolate Factory, Intel == Chipzilla, Cisco == Borg Collective (pretty sure Broadcom deserves that title these days)