This book had a very interesting title that caught my eye at the library. When I’m reading I’m looking to mentally distance myself away from “the whole coding thing” as far as I possibly can, so purely basing off the title I would not have elected to read it. However, the story isn’t about that at all.

Before getting into the story and what I took away from it I have to mention that this book contains one of my biggest pet peeves: the protagonist spends the first page talking directly to the reader, saying that the events of the book are real and that he’s not supposed to talk about it. I don’t know what authors are going for when they do this, but it doesn’t work on me. There’s a reason I borrow out of the fiction section of the library; I don’t have to believe in the story to enjoy it.

Moreover, I think when we read fiction we are making a covert agreement with the author to take everything in at face value without dwelling on if the story really happened, because we all know it didn’t. When they breach this agreement by insisting that the story is real, it breaks the magical spell of fiction, and we are ever reminded of how the story is in fact not real. Doing it might increase immersiveness for a twelve year old, but Please Report Your Bug Here is definitely a book for grown-ups (it’s kind of crazy to think that I’ll be a grown-up (sparkles!) soon enough). Even as a kid I wasn’t impressed by these declarations of truthfulness. It’s the reason I stopped reading Percy Jackson after the first paragraph (speaking of which, I should get over it and read that series at some point).

Now, with that out of the way, I did end up enjoying this novel very much. The story is about a fresh college graduate immersed in the tech-startup world at San Francisco. His major was in liberal arts, a perspective which lets us have a peek at what startup life entails outside of the monotonic technical workers and the greedy opportunists, two stereotypes embodied by characters in the novel simply referred to as “the Engineer” and “the Founder.”

Reading this book made me think a lot about who I want to be in the future. I could definitely see myself as the Engineer, with a breadth of knowledge but not many other things going for them other than that technical skill. I can also see myself as the Founder, pretending to hold ethics and noble visions, only to discard them when it becomes convenient for capital. Our protagonist is different, having interests in art and a strong sense of right and wrong. It is not inconceivable that I could grow up to be like him, although regrettably his life outlook is not nearly as bright.

Who do I want to be in the future, if I must survive within this world of technology and capitalism? I know I will be a very successful Engineer type, but at the same time I do not want to be doomed to a mind-numbing routine of technical development whilst opportunists profit off of my work. In turn, I do not want to be the Founder/opportunist type who climbs ladders and puts themselves in front of others. This leaves the “artist” type, whom I do appreciate but also recognize that aspiring for such a life is romantic and sentimental (not saying those things are bad!). As our protagonist acknowledges when he downgrades his health insurance and thinks of his student loans, it doesn’t pay the bills.

The author presents these three choices as the bleak outlooks of modern life. One must choose to be either a cog in the corporate machine, a greedy opportunist liar, or a picturesquely impoverished artist. Funny enough, this situation recalls the “Iron Triangle” complex of software: good, fast, economical, you can only pick two. If I could only pick two of those people to be, who do I leave out? And could it be that the humanity and integrity of the artist is fundamentally incompatible with what it takes to be successful as the other two?

I realize that I’m being very harsh towards the Engineer type and the Founder type, and this is because I’m taking the same attitude that the book does. I’m sure that as one of them it’s possible to have identity and be a good person, but more often than not, those things are cast aside in pursuit of a success defined by money and status.

Back to the book’s contents, the first three quarters are a lively depiction of the “startup days.” The author happens to be the first employee at Instagram, so I imagine there is some validity in his descriptions. Working at Instagram also must be the reason for the book’s second, more subtle message about social media and its lack of authenticity, a message that is delivered so subtly because at this point, it is cliché.

More obvious than the other two themes of identity and authenticity is the evilness of the corporation and capitalism. The tech giant in the book, given the generic name of “The Corporation” in line with the Engineer and the Founder, behaves as today’s real tech giants would, monopolizing entire sectors and buying out any competitors with overwhelming capital, collecting complete data profiles on its consumers and inserting itself into their lives. The protagonist casually mentions that his startup’s dating app secretly uses the phone camera to recognize and collect the user’s emotions, something “definitely invasive” but completely okay because it is in the app’s terms of service, buried dozens of pages deep of course. For the startup and the venture capitalists backing it, only growth matters, because by the time the law is able to bring its heavy gavel around to swing at them, they would have already been acquired by the Corporation.

The end of the book is paced rapidly and has a jarring effect, mostly due to the discovery of a supernatural element taking hold of the plotline and pushing the limits of what one is willing to believe. What’s not hard to believe however are the actions of the Corporation in light of these discoveries, which is to immediately attempt to monetize it, and failing that, to permanently destroy it for fear of competition. As a new employee of the Corporation following the acquisition of the startup, our protagonist uncovers the story behind the origins of the discovery, a story of tragedy, hopelessness, and manipulation that yet again reinforces the Corporation’s evil. We are reminded of how helpless we are as individuals against such monolithic entities, who conceal their atrocities so effortlessly from the prying eyes of both the law and the press.

My one complaint at the end is that there are too many questions left unanswered, not for the effect of irresolution but rather as a result of a lack of detail and deeper exploration into plot elements. Nevertheless this is a great novel to be reading, especially for someone my age about to go out to find myself in the real world. The small issues with the plot don’t detract from the novel at all because the plot only serves as a means to reveal the author’s incredibly relevant message about identity, authenticity, and corporate evil in today’s world of tech.