Where are you at this moment? Lounging on the couch, with your laptop teetering on your knees? Or are you about to take a selfie–just you and the Christmas tree?
Wherever you are, physically and cosmically, we have our usual two reading selections for you, this time in the hope of making 2023 a better year. We’ve got:
- Dan Lyons’ eternally amusing tale of working in tech;
- Emma Byrne’s brilliantly subversive book on why cursing is so good for us.
So, go easy on the egg nog (and the turkey stuffing) this holiday season, and enjoy the reads!
Disrupted:
My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble
By Dan Lyons
Hachette Book Group USA, 2017
When Dan Lyons loses his job as technology editor at Newsweek, he is 51 years old. As a reporter, he has lived through the first Internet bubble. Now, he finds himself jobless and on the brink of a new bubble: the tech startup bubble. So, he kind of figures, why not jump aboard a small company, perhaps as a “content provider,” wait for a stock-market listing, and then laugh all the way to the bank?
When he’s finally hired by a startup that makes marketing software, Lyons discovers that working in a tech company is not a walk in the park.
Yes, there’s a “candy wall” in the cafeteria. Yes, there’s a gym. And yes, there are hammocks for taking afternoon naps. But not all that glitters is gold: the young employees are pressured to work long hours, they’re paid peanuts, and they’re regularly replaced. The 51-year-old Lyons is virtually invisible to his colleagues, who see him as a relic from a distant past.
When, at a meeting, he sees the CEO carrying a large stuffed bear that meant to simulate a client’s presence, Lyons realizes something is off. “Any place with a founder who brings a teddy bear to meetings is a step away from Jonestown,” he writes.
This is a true story, part memoir, part educational read, and part guide to navigating the absurd world of tech companies.
No time to read the book? Watch Dan Lyons speaking at GoogleTalk.
For more cautionary tales on the world of tech startups, we recommend Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner and the chilling Bad Blood by John Carreyrou.
Swearing Is Good for You:
The Amazing Science of Bad Language
By Emma Byrne
W. W. Norton & Company, 2018
The holiday season is upon us, which means big family gatherings and everything that comes with them. So, you can imagine my joy at discovering that there’s sound evidence of the benefits of using the F-word with due abandon.
Emma Byrne is a woman after my own heart: She’s an AI researcher who has worked in the fields of genetics, neuroscience, and medicine. AND, most importantly, she believes that swearing is good for us.
“We should keep at it. Swearing is a powerful instrument, socially and emotionally. If women and men want to communicate as equals, we need to be equals in the ways in which we are allowed to express ourselves. Sod social censure. Let us allow men to cry and women to swear: we need both means of expression.”
Byrne tells us that swearing can help build a team in the workplace (yep!): “Teams sharing a vulgar lexicon tend to work more effectively together, feel closer, and be more productive.” This is because swearing is a good way to manage stress–and a more effective way, at that.
Believe it or not, swearing has also contributed to neuroscience research on brain structure. Yes, the F-word is a research tool!
Swearing tells us a lot about our minds, too. “We know that people who learn a second language often find it less stressful to swear in their adopted tongue, which gives us an idea of the childhood developmental stages at which we can learn emotions and taboos.” But, despite all this, swearing is still not a respectable topic of research.
For more on bad language, we recommend The F-word by lexicologist Jesse Sheidlower and On Cussing: Bad Words and Creative Cursing by Katherine Dunne.