Net Slaves: True Tales of Working the Web

by Steve Baldwin and Bill Lessard

Book Overview

A Library Journal Best Business Book for 1999 and featured in The New York Times and USA Today, the cult classic NetSlaves is now in paperback.Referring to the NetSlaves website on which this book was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071352430
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

From the snivleing-techie-department.

There will be people that write reviews... saying that this book is a whiner's book or that the writers are techie axe grinders. They may say 'name changing is not warranted'. They'll feel smug with these criticisms. But the reality is that the technical world is burning hot which truly proves that technical work is hell. There is a great push to 'become' more efficient. What this really means is 80 hour work weeks or more. This means exploiting the talent of your employees and reorging them often. When you are done with them, you toss them to the side. People become a commodity. Behind all the free soda, snacks, air conditioned rooms, there is a real abuse and exploitation. Sure leave your job for another one. That job will be the same thing. I remember when I liked using computers, now I feel they are a social black hole that slowly sucks the life out of you. If this was a book about artists creating work and them having it ripped from them by corporate goons there would be more sympathy to the writers, but most people don't see that technologists are in fact artists. They create. Welcome to commercialism. But if you can't beat them, join them... This book has finally convinced me to go get that MBA and strive to become one of the last 3 chapters of this book.

At Last A Piece of the NetStory That Needed Telling!

I like the internet just fine - but I'm so sick of the hype! This book, while not really scholarly, nonetheless helps tell the complete story of Networld. And that world sounds like hell to me! I found it an enjoyable read and would recommend it to anyone and everyone tempted to make the net ( and Bill Gates and all the rest of it ) into a false idol. The "e-revolution" is not really something new at all, only another gold rush that gets the greedy and ambitious hot and bothered. As for me, I use it now and then and thank its inventors and maintenance people for keeping it running. But worship at its feet? No thank you!

Blood, Sweat, and Sore Butts

I don't think I've ever read a book like this before - it's sort of like "Pulp Fiction Meets The Net" with shades of "True Confessions" mixed in. This is a quick read, and I've already passed it on to a family member who still harbors the belief that working in the "dot.com" field is a good career choice. I don't know if I'd go quite so far as to say that most Net careers "nasty, brutish, and short", as the authors do, but I do think it's about time that people start looking beyond the hype toward what life in the info-trenches actually entails, and this book is an excellent alternative to all the dot-com glamorizing and boosterism that's out there. Very funny, too - it helps the bitter cautionary medicine go down.

X-treme net disasters sad...but true

Netslaves without a doubt is X-treme, with the capital 'X'. The stories you read within are disturbing. The insiders view of some large hardware, software, and Internet companies makes you wanna run out and Sell, Sell, Sell any and all stock you may have in them.In fact, some of the stories got so bizarre, that I started reacting negatively to the book. Sword-wielding censors? Company heads fleeing justice in Mexico? OJ's guilty?Come on. That, coupled with the mangled corporate names (though anyone with a brain can guess who NetScathe et al really are) seemed to seriously impact the power of the book. My credibility was stretched, and I thought to myself, "Self, this is just another one of those sensationalism books out to shock you out of your money".But I was wrong. By the the time I finished the book, I poked my nose around and found out it was true. All of its true. And then I re-read it, and the realism and bluntness of the writing sucked me in.Netslaves is a great book, because it deals with real people honestly. Real people under enormous (and occasionally bizarre) stress do whacko things, and these guys are there to show you the damage. The world wide web is built on the broken remains of Netslaves, and Bill and Steve give you the view from the coroners office. I'd give it two thumbs up if it weren't for the damn carpal tunnel....

Finally, a brilliant anti-hype book about the Net

I'm a media critic and writer, and have been drowning in hype about the gilded age of the Hyper-Net. Some of this is true, but much isn't. This is the other side, the story that's been waiting to be told, and it couldn't possibly be told any better, funnier, or more knowingly than in this book, which I'm proud to be reviewing for Slashdot.org as well.