Beyond the media frenzy of the dot.com bust, here is the behind-the-scenes account of what became of American tech industry workers.
Technology professionals, former employees of failed Internet start-ups, downsized corporate workers, and entrepreneurs eager to avoid mistakes of the recent past will be captivated by this humorous and poignant account of the human cost of the dot.com rise and fall. In the sequel to their acclaimed and successful NetSlaves: Tales of Working the Web, the authors profile the people affected by the rise and fall of Internet companies and where they are today. The coverage in this collection of post-dot.com experiences includes the "survivalists", who made it through the storm intact and continue to work in the industry; the "neo-luddites", who have shunned the Internet forever; the "vigilantes", who are screaming for justice for their mistreatment; and many others. By revealing the most absurd moments of "the bubble" and what really happened to the people displaced by the death of the New Economy, this volume is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what these events mean for the future of the Internet industry.
Net Slaves 2.0
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Feel the love and live the flashbacks." -- Time Out New York
From the Publisher
The dot.com rise and fall has been indelibly linked to images of money and stock value in the national memory. Overlooked in the media frenzy, however, was the most vital element: the human cost. In NetSlaves 2.0, a startling and inspiring sequel to their acclaimed NetSlaves, authors Bill Lessard and Steve Baldwin offer a behind-the-scenes account of what became of American tech industry workers.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was in college during the madness of the dot-com boom, just aching to be part of the stock-option party. By the time I left, the bust was beginning and things were seemingly all down hill - I felt as though I had missed something magical.
After reading Netslaves 2.0, I realized something. I was an idiot. Bill Lessard and Steve Baldwin have removed looked past the facade of of 24 year-old CEOs and free-money stock-options and dreams of reinventing the world and revealed just how miserable life at the average dot-com was. The book is hillariously funny, but its comedy in the Mel Brooks sense: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down a manhole and die." The lives and experiences of these dot-com worker-bees while on the surface had me laughing out loud, they also anecdotally reveal the systemic problems of the cheap-money craze between 1998 and 2000.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
NetSlaves 2.0: Tales of Surviving the Great Tech Gold Rush, is a must read for anyone who has risked it all in the hopes of building a better life, only to fall flat on their ... Thankfully, this book is not about 24 year old dot com millionaires crying about their lost fortunes. As Tom Petty says, "Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes," and this is a collection of stories about hard working underdogs that are worth caring about.
Charles is a young ambitious college student who loves the idea of creating an online zine. Instead of handing out a Xeroxed packet of articles to his 10 closest friends, he knows that the Internet will give him a whole new audience of readers from around the world. His passion even leads to a job at the ultimate destination for tech-nerd-intellectuals, Wired. Unfortunately Charles falls in love with the wrong girl at the same time that the Internet bubble is bursting, so Charles must find his inner resolve in order to survive physically and emotionally.
What may make NetSlaves 2.0 a frustrating read for some is the fact that most of the characters in these stories do not find a happy ending. That may leave readers wondering why the authors have bothered to bring these stories to the page at all. The reason may be that Bill Lessard and Steve Baldwin simply want these stories to be heard. They have also chosen to use a mix of fact and fiction when telling these stories which may add to this frustration. The reader is sometimes left wondering how much of each story is fact or fiction.
NetSlaves 2.0 rings true because it highlights the willful ignorance that many had as they jumped on the Internet bandwagon. One of the least sympathetic characters in the book is Gene. Gene is a 12-year Proctor and Gamble marketing man who is on the brink of a mid-life crisis. Instead of buying a red Porsche and spending his evenings down at the strip club, Gene decides to pin all of his hopes on the Internet. It seems obvious from the start that his dreams of getting rich quick will never come to pass but it's still painful to see him lose his wife, kids, and house. Gene does manage to stumble upon redemption as he comes to accept his fate and bounce back to minor entrepreneurial success.
The most compelling story in the book is the Matrix-esque tale of Vincent who finds himself in possession of something extremely valuable to his employers. The drama unfolds as the company resorts to illegal tactics in order to protect their corporate assets. Vincent is standing on strong legal ground, as he tries to protect what is clearly his intellectual property, but the ultimate challenge will be coming up with the money to fight a company with nearly limitless legal resources.
Netslaves 2.0 is a quick history of how the Internet debacle occurred and the lives that were changed in the process. Bill Lessard and Steve Baldwin chronicle the daily lives of some of the individual net slaves while also looking at a larger world that includes paranoid AOL execs pawing through employee emails in order to silence rumors that could hurt the company's bottom line. It is an enjoyable ride from the height of dot com mania to the crash of economic reality.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Everyone who has dissed this book obviously hasn't read it. This book is fun, and puts the entire Dot-Com Bubble and its aftermath into perspective. The people profiled run the gamut from executives to regular tech workers who went from making a great deal of money to barely getting by and the dignity that they somehow muster amidst very unpleasant circumstances. (In a way, NetSlaves 2.0 reminds me of "The Shawshank Redemption, because it's about hope, and retaining one's humanity.)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
I liked the first one enough to read 2.0
Is this great literature? No, but it tells people's stories, and that's what I like. I read books about Apple, Microsoft, and the rest because I like personal antidotes and want... Read more
Published on September 9, 2008 by Kab00m
Considers the lasting impact of the Internet demise
The dot.com rise and fall has been examined numerous times from the standpoint of economic impact; but its human cost has been left behind. Read more
Published on November 15, 2003 by Midwest Book Review
I'm Glad I Wasn't There
Book that makes you laugh, and also makes you furious at the state of affairs that the high-tech business stumbled, and then fell into. Read more
Published on May 16, 2003
Good caricatures of office life
The book is mostly about people who worked in the computer industry during the last several years. The book makes caricatures of them, and tells fictional documentaries about how... Read more
Published on May 12, 2003
The beginning of the Internet winter
Most of what's been written about the Internet bubble is easily summarized as ``most dotcoms were thinly disguised stock scams,'' and generally lacking in insight. Read more
Published on May 11, 2003
Disappointing
Although Lessard and Baldwin are amusing and entertaining writers, at the end of the day, this book is just more of the same regarding the dot.bust pity party. Read more
Published on May 3, 2003
Bizarre and Funny
I'm not much of a fan of Internet books, I suppose both because they so typically stereotype those who use or work in the industry as a bunch of narcissistic, surprisingly... Read more
Published on May 2, 2003
Bizarre and Funny
I'm not much of a fan of Internet books, I suppose both because they so typically stereotype those who use or work in the industry as a bunch of narcissistic, surprisingly... Read more
Published on May 2, 2003
Net Whiners
Get over it! The dotcom crash happened three years ago and all you guys can do is to moan and groan about it. Get a life!
Lessard and Baldwin continue the pity party. Read more
Published on April 28, 2003 by Peter AreNuts
Net Whiners
This book may have been relevant two or three years ago, but it's just whining at this point. Netslaves is devoted to lamentations about how workers were victimized by greedy evil... Read more
Published on April 23, 2003
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Neo-Luddites would rather shovel cow guts in a slaughter-house than ever work in the technology industry again. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tech workers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Economy, Time Warner, New York, Van Gogh, Grave Robbers, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, United States, Sand Hill, Psychological Profile, Wall Street Journal, Jerry Levin, Salt Lake City, Warren Buffett, The Industry Standard, Favorite Pastimes, Long Island, New Media, Warner Bros, Wired News, Current Employment Situation, Indian Hill, Post-Bust Stress Rating, Rockefeller Plaza, San Mateo New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Neo-Luddites would rather shovel cow guts in a slaughter-house than ever work in the technology industry again. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tech workers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Economy, Time Warner, New York, Van Gogh, Grave Robbers, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, United States, Sand Hill, Psychological Profile, Wall Street Journal, Jerry Levin, Salt Lake City, Warren Buffett, The Industry Standard, Favorite Pastimes, Long Island, New Media, Warner Bros, Wired News, Current Employment Situation, Indian Hill, Post-Bust Stress Rating, Rockefeller Plaza, San Mateo New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 6
books:
See all 6 books this book cites
- Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics) by John Milton on page 24
- What Money Really Means by Thomas M. Kostigen in Back Matter
- The Money Mentor: A Tale of Finding Financial Freedom by Tad Crawford in Back Matter
- The Entrepreneurial Age: Awakening the Spirit of Enterprise in People, Companies, and Countries by Karry Farrell in Back Matter
- Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma and the New Rules of Business by Laurie Windham in Back Matter
See all 6 books this book cites
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