Teaser Tuesday: Every

Happy Tuesday! Teasing from Dave Eggers’ The Every today, the story of one woman’s quest to destroy an uber-corporation that’s Facebook/Google/Apple/Amazon rolled into one.

“Now I’m thinking if I can just kill emojis, that would be enough,” Delaney said. “You see the Secretary of State use a few today?” Wes asked. “He was celebrating the anniversary of glasnost, and he used a dancing rainbow. On the official state account. Our species has no dignity. No path to dignity.”

Well, sometimes I’ll text a friend—just something like a rainbow emoji followed by a two-way arrow and a question mark. You know, to let them know I’m happy and hope they’re happy.” “And then you wait,” Delaney said. “Right!” Shireen said. “And while I’m waiting…” “You wonder if they hate you and are plotting against you and will spread lies about you and ruin your life and you’ll want to die?” Delaney said. She expected a laugh, but the faces of Shireen and Carlo had gone gray. “I wouldn’t use those words, exactly,” Shireen said, “but—”

Capital-P Play was last year’s management theory, following multitasking, singletasking, grit, learning-from-failure, napping, cardioworking, saying no, saying yes, the wisdom of the crowd > trusting one’s gut, trusting one’s gut > the wisdom of the crowd, Viking management theory, Commissioner Gordon workflow theory, X-teams, B-teams, embracing simplicity, pursuing complexity, seeking zemblanity, creativity through radical individualism, creativity through groupthink, creativity through the rejection of groupthink, organizational mindfulness, organizational blindness, microwork, macrosloth, fear-based camaraderie, love-based terror, working while standing, working while ambulatory, learning while sleeping, and, most recently, limes.

About smellincoffee

Citizen, librarian, reader with a boundless wonder for the world and a curiosity about all the beings inside it.
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4 Responses to Teaser Tuesday: Every

  1. Cyberkitten says:

    Totally agree on ‘management theory’. I was with my firm for so long that I saw refurbished old ideas come back in new cloths every 10 years or so. It made me laugh. People used to look to me as if to ask if they should take the latest ‘fad’ seriously. I always said ‘No’ and, sure enough, it washed through the organisation and precious little changed…. followed by the next ‘management initiative’. We all got pretty sick of it after a while. One of the last ideas we had to suffer through was ‘Think Like a Pirate’ because they were ‘disruptive innovators’. The management company we had in to promote the idea REALLY didn’t like to be reminded about what exactly *real* pirates did to those they ‘disrupted’.

    • I think you’d get a kick out of this one. So far it has the creepy dystopia of The Circle combined with Max Barry’s corporate mockery. I think I remember Circle being on your to-read list?

      • Cyberkitten says:

        I think ‘Circle’ was on my interest list, but I haven’t picked up a copy (yet). I’m actually in 2 minds about this sort of thing. I think it’d need to walk a very fine line between being funny or insightful enough and being too ‘on point’.

      • This is definitely on point…it reminds me of Carr’s “Glass Cage” book which I’d started.

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