This Book Sounds Like Me!

Ever wake up one day, and realize that your entire life has been predicted, if not played out, in entirety, in a book? I think that just happened to me...

I just read this little post on Boing Boing today, and my jaw literally dropped. Actually, Justin's jaw dropped too because this is not only creepy, it's kind of cool at the same time. Cory Doctorow talks about Makers, his next novel, which began as an online serial a few years ago, called Themepunks:

"Makers tells the story of a group of hardware hackers who fall in with microfinancing venture capitalists and reinvent the American economy after a total economic collapse, and who find themselves swimming with sharks, fighting with gangsters, and leading a band of global techno-revolutionaries."

Going down the list...

• Hardware Hacker - check, check, check
  
• Microfinance - check
  
• Economic Collapse - check
  
• Fighting with Gangsters - sort of :-)
  
• Global Techno Revolutionaries - check, check, and check
• PowerPoint - check
  
• Blue Blazer - check (I almost always wear one, just because)

I read the first 2 chapters from the Themepunk story web site, and a few things stuck out that totally rang a bell:

• The fact that IBM doesn't even make their own computers anymore. Yeah, what the hell?
• "Capitalism is eating itself." What a great phrase! According to some economists and job surveys, the best and brightest want to become bankers, not engineers - booooo....
  

There are a couple of things in the writing that don't completely work, but that's ok:

• There's no CEO, because that's too corporate sounding, and plus everyone knows that centralized hierarchical organization models are so 1980's paradigm (sorry, Henry Mintzberg)
  
• No khaki's - they get solder flux stains too easily ... everyone knows jeans are way better :-)
  

So I guess I don't really have any other choice than to say, ... I will buy this book, and definitely look forward to reading every page. I just hope it ends up well!

And if you're reading this, Cory Doctorow, I would absolutely LOVE to sell your book on the Liquidware shop website....

Viva la hardware hacking microfinance economic rebuilding techno revolutionaries!