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alexandrabjarg's review
3.0
Að lesa þessa bók verandi viðskiptavinur HubSpot er einstaklega óþægileg upplifun
horfhorfhorf's review
3.0
I found this book interesting; Lyons raises interesting points about a new breed of workplace culture and the people encouraging that. He has the experience to call out the tech-utopia idealist shit - Silicon Valley's sci-fi take of crystal sucking dolphin worship, as if were. But some of this absolutely smells like "In my day..." bullshit.
The recent reveal of Lyons engaging in typical white male tech-bro bullshit (LMGTFY: emails to Milo Yiannalannajerkoff) made me re-read this book and take pause at some of Dan's assessments... and his ability to see what else was going on, beyond him feeling like the old man out around the boundless enthusiasm associated with youth, wealth, and lack of more significant responsibility. I dunno... three stars seems right. Still an interesting read if you're tired of feeling like every company's description of employee perks reads more like a brand voice guide.
The recent reveal of Lyons engaging in typical white male tech-bro bullshit (LMGTFY: emails to Milo Yiannalannajerkoff) made me re-read this book and take pause at some of Dan's assessments... and his ability to see what else was going on, beyond him feeling like the old man out around the boundless enthusiasm associated with youth, wealth, and lack of more significant responsibility. I dunno... three stars seems right. Still an interesting read if you're tired of feeling like every company's description of employee perks reads more like a brand voice guide.
ericfheiman's review
3.0
A nice non-fiction companion to "I Hate the Internet". Read them as a pair! (And then plan your exodus from the Bay Area soon after.) While I'm hesitant to call our narrator reliable--his previous journalism career surely makes him more suspect and cynical about this current startup boom than most--I appreciated his sober take on all this frothy Silicon Valley idealism. (Or is charlatanism?) Which, even if his perspective is only half-true, is still chilling and beyond-the-pale fucked up.
Oh yeah, and it's pretty funny, too.
Oh yeah, and it's pretty funny, too.
lspargo's review against another edition
3.0
Books about working in the tech industry are like catnip for me, especially when they're about how weird and bad it is to work there. This guy, however, comes off as kind of a jerk, but his experiences were still interesting.
emilymias's review
4.0
I can't lie that this is an entertaining book, as unlikeable as Dan Lyons is. He comes across as whiny and not genuine at all, but the book makes you think, a lot. I've been recommending it to everybody just because I can't stop thinking about it. Lots of fascinating information about silicon valley and the current state of technology start-ups. You just have to get past a lot of his personal opinions on things, because some of the things he says are just ageist and condescending (despite the fact that he's complaining about ageism against himself... ha!)
mmmmmmasha's review
4.0
WOW, what a fantastic little book! I read it in one sitting, bumming around in the park on a sunny day - and more than once I laughed out loud. Recommended!
The book is autobiographical: it chronicles an ex-Newsweek reporter's foray into becoming a marketer for a growing (sometimes painfully) startup called Hubspot, in the run-up to its IPO. And he doesn't even use the phrase "growth hacker" once!
It's part "crusty old dude" memoir, part sadly hilarious (hilariously sad?) landscape painting of the way Silicon Valley business gets done today. Dan uncovers delusions that you might think unbelievable - alas, as a startup founder myself, I can attest to the malleable properties of reality in the hands of young, inexperienced visionaries out to put a dent in the Universe (or "break the Internet").
Read it and weep.
The book is autobiographical: it chronicles an ex-Newsweek reporter's foray into becoming a marketer for a growing (sometimes painfully) startup called Hubspot, in the run-up to its IPO. And he doesn't even use the phrase "growth hacker" once!
It's part "crusty old dude" memoir, part sadly hilarious (hilariously sad?) landscape painting of the way Silicon Valley business gets done today. Dan uncovers delusions that you might think unbelievable - alas, as a startup founder myself, I can attest to the malleable properties of reality in the hands of young, inexperienced visionaries out to put a dent in the Universe (or "break the Internet").
Read it and weep.
tempamatic's review
5.0
This book affected me at a profound level. I was the oldest employee at various startups for a decade, and Dan Lyons accurately described the absurdity and frustration I encountered at all of them. He crafted his story so well that I felt transported back to that special hell of a fifty-something writer toiling away for years in a frat-house sweatshop with a "team" of ill-prepared (yet oh-so-special) snowflakes.
If you find yourself considering employment at a similar company, and if you're "old" (over 40 and certainly over 50), please read this book before you sign anything or accept any job offers. It's a cautionary tale that is the most perfect description of the current startup "culture" I've ever read. It made my blood boil while reading it, and at the same time I found myself laughing out loud throughout.
"Disrupted" is a remarkable achievement, giving both prospective employees and investors a razor-sharp look inside a hellhole that seems so pleasant from its exterior. I loved this book and hope all my former, present and future colleagues take the time to read it.
If you find yourself considering employment at a similar company, and if you're "old" (over 40 and certainly over 50), please read this book before you sign anything or accept any job offers. It's a cautionary tale that is the most perfect description of the current startup "culture" I've ever read. It made my blood boil while reading it, and at the same time I found myself laughing out loud throughout.
"Disrupted" is a remarkable achievement, giving both prospective employees and investors a razor-sharp look inside a hellhole that seems so pleasant from its exterior. I loved this book and hope all my former, present and future colleagues take the time to read it.
stephenmeansme's review against another edition
2.0
This is a complicated review, because "Disrupted" is sort of a weird book (at least in its class of "much talked-about for about ten minutes and then forgotten" extended think-pieces). On the one hand, it's a memoir of Dan Lyons' forced midlife crisis, getting kicked out of a cushy job at Newsweek, languishing in the Millennial "Animal Farm" of a Boston tech startup, then landing a writing gig with HBO's "Silicon Valley." Okie dokie.
Except that Lyons is kind of a dick.
I mean, I expect that he's pleasant enough as a person; I bet his wife and kids love him and all that; but in the absence of the true institutional psycopathy on display at Hubspot, Lyons is the avatar of every FOX News pundit's gripe about smug East Coast liberal journalism. He was Newsweek's technology editor, so he maybe has cause to feel a bit superior―maybe―but after a while his insinuations that journalists are just better people who are hip and sarcastic and don't have sticks up their asses and don't enable the exact sort of bullshit he's witnessing... well, it all starts sounding a bit arrogant.
Of course, his observations and critique of Hubspot's corporate culture are pretty scathing. Hubspot is a "tech company" in the same way that McDonald's is an agribusiness: while it uses Web technology, it's really a marketing outfit, and―as Lyons discovers―ultimately adheres to the outbound marketing status quo.
Okay, but a lot of businesses are sort of lame. The mind-boggling part is that Hubspot has a $1bn market capitalization and successfully raised millions of dollars in venture capital.
"Disrupted" is more than a simple memoir: it's also an argument that "Silicon Valley" (Lyons uses this term to mean the current tech-startup paradigm in general) perpetuates a toxic attitude towards work, employment, and wealth; that tech companies are valued without any basis in reality; and that many founders, buoyed by obscene amounts of VC money, seem to be high-functioning sociopaths.
On that score I thought the bits about the market dynamics were the most surprising. Did you know that many companies' investment contracts with VCs contain a clause that insulates the investors from 100% of the risk if the company tanks? "But who loses money, then?" You may ask. Well, it's the rank-and-file employees, of course! And many tech companies infamously ask their code monkeys to accept low salaries in exchange for equity, often at a rate of vestment in excess of the median length of employment! Wheeeeee!
As for the culture, well, it's truly Orwellian, Kafkaesque, even Stalinist at points; take your pick. But I think the single literary analogy that comes closest is Animal Farm―not the Orwell book you were expecting. The irrational exuberance, the redefinition of words, the subtle accumulation of exceptions for a privileged few, it's all there at Hubspot.
I listened to the Audible version, which Lyons narrates himself. I liked his extra emotion and disdain when describing the more incredible aspects of Hubspot's workplace, from the Morlocks-and-Eloi split between the Marketing and Sales floors, to the "Idiocracy"-worthy exchange he has with his twentysomething coworkers about the literal wall of candy dispensers in the break room.
Lyons' narration also smoothed over some of the less-polished aspects of his writing, like his tendency to write each chapter as if we hadn't read any of the previous chapters, including his various dystopic references. Maybe it's his background as a journalist. Or maybe it was just a rushed editing job.
Overall I'd say this is a good book to get from the library. For free versions of the same sort of critique, see (e.g.) Michael O. Church's personal blog, and the "Our Incredible Journey" Tumblr.
Except that Lyons is kind of a dick.
I mean, I expect that he's pleasant enough as a person; I bet his wife and kids love him and all that; but in the absence of the true institutional psycopathy on display at Hubspot, Lyons is the avatar of every FOX News pundit's gripe about smug East Coast liberal journalism. He was Newsweek's technology editor, so he maybe has cause to feel a bit superior―maybe―but after a while his insinuations that journalists are just better people who are hip and sarcastic and don't have sticks up their asses and don't enable the exact sort of bullshit he's witnessing... well, it all starts sounding a bit arrogant.
Of course, his observations and critique of Hubspot's corporate culture are pretty scathing. Hubspot is a "tech company" in the same way that McDonald's is an agribusiness: while it uses Web technology, it's really a marketing outfit, and―as Lyons discovers―ultimately adheres to the outbound marketing status quo.
Okay, but a lot of businesses are sort of lame. The mind-boggling part is that Hubspot has a $1bn market capitalization and successfully raised millions of dollars in venture capital.
"Disrupted" is more than a simple memoir: it's also an argument that "Silicon Valley" (Lyons uses this term to mean the current tech-startup paradigm in general) perpetuates a toxic attitude towards work, employment, and wealth; that tech companies are valued without any basis in reality; and that many founders, buoyed by obscene amounts of VC money, seem to be high-functioning sociopaths.
On that score I thought the bits about the market dynamics were the most surprising. Did you know that many companies' investment contracts with VCs contain a clause that insulates the investors from 100% of the risk if the company tanks? "But who loses money, then?" You may ask. Well, it's the rank-and-file employees, of course! And many tech companies infamously ask their code monkeys to accept low salaries in exchange for equity, often at a rate of vestment in excess of the median length of employment! Wheeeeee!
As for the culture, well, it's truly Orwellian, Kafkaesque, even Stalinist at points; take your pick. But I think the single literary analogy that comes closest is Animal Farm―not the Orwell book you were expecting. The irrational exuberance, the redefinition of words, the subtle accumulation of exceptions for a privileged few, it's all there at Hubspot.
I listened to the Audible version, which Lyons narrates himself. I liked his extra emotion and disdain when describing the more incredible aspects of Hubspot's workplace, from the Morlocks-and-Eloi split between the Marketing and Sales floors, to the "Idiocracy"-worthy exchange he has with his twentysomething coworkers about the literal wall of candy dispensers in the break room.
Lyons' narration also smoothed over some of the less-polished aspects of his writing, like his tendency to write each chapter as if we hadn't read any of the previous chapters, including his various dystopic references. Maybe it's his background as a journalist. Or maybe it was just a rushed editing job.
Overall I'd say this is a good book to get from the library. For free versions of the same sort of critique, see (e.g.) Michael O. Church's personal blog, and the "Our Incredible Journey" Tumblr.
wrenarf's review
4.0
This was accurate and slightly painful but mostly very funny! Angry people always make the best writers. I even gasped a few times! Some tidbits were repeated unnecessarily which was a little grrrr. But mostly just realllll funny and also sneakily educational about the big picture of the industry I work in.
I'm a twenty-something but I think I'm still curmudgeonly enough to relate very easily.
Awesome!!! Crushing it!!!
I'm a twenty-something but I think I'm still curmudgeonly enough to relate very easily.
Awesome!!! Crushing it!!!