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I finished Douglas Coupland’s All Families are Psychotic last night. I can’t say that I’ve been less impressed with a book by an author roughly of my generation (Coupland is more than a decade my senior, does that count as the same generation?) since I read David Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

Perhaps I’m just out of touch, but I didn’t get much out of Generation X, either. I haven’t read any of Coupland’s other books, although I have read that most of the others are far better. (He recently published God Hates Japan, which I gather is published only in Japanese, but I doubt I’ll look for it in my neighborhood bookstore.)

In many respects, All Families are Psychotic reminds me of a book someone in a high school creative writing course might have written, given time and a bit of artistic freedom. The book contains several interesting ideas, but doesn’t go into much detail exploring any of them. The characters are a bit shallow--especially when you consider their remarkable circumstances!--and, ultimately, are mere spectators in a story that is supposed to be about them.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this book is the fact that the author doesn’t like the U.K./Australia cover, which is the only one that I thought was not ugly. (Incidentally, yes, I did get the U.K. copy--not because I liked it better, but simply because I picked this book up at a local book fair.)

In thinking about this book, though, I came to realize that I haven’t read any good books by young authors in recent memory; Zadie Smith’s White Teeth being the only memorable exception. 

Is it simply the case that young people don’t have much to say? I would be glad to receive some suggestions about young authors who are writing books worth reading.

...and the world will beat a path to your door.

Last night I finally^[1] finished Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary, Linus Torvalds’ autobiographical account of the birth of Linux, the open source operating system that is gradually changing the long-held corporate dogma that secretive, proprietary code is the only way to develop software.

The book traces the development of Linus himself and the growth of Linux in parallel. All throughout, there is a much greater emphasis on the philosophy of openness than the technical aspects involved in building an operating system (although there is some of that as well). From beginning to end, the book conveys Torvalds’ confidence that Linux developers worldwide are developing the world’s best technology simply through doing what they love: Having fun.

The way Torvalds sees it, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be greatly simplified. Whereas Maslow identifies five basic needs, Torvalds sees only three:

1. Survival
2. Finding one’s place in the Social Order
3. Having fun

Hence the title of the book. Torvalds suggests that, in a society where one’s basic survival is all but assured, earning lots of money is less of a motivational factor than enjoying yourself. It is for this reason, he says, that millions of people around the world contribute to open source projects for little or no money: They’re having fun doing what they love most. Just as any artist is happiest when creating art, geeks feel good about creating code. More than that, they feel good about working with the best minds in their fields (not just people who happen to work for the same company) on projects they feel will make a difference.

Where it comes to technology, this book and others like it have changed my religion. Although I am by no means capable of making meaningful contributions to Linux, I have been using it as my main operating system for nearly a year now. Although there is a bit of a learning curve to take into account when moving to Linux from a Windows background, I have found the process very enlightening.

If I ever do decide to build a better mouse trap, you can be sure that I’ll make it open source. Linus and Linux have convinced me that it is not only the best way to make sure that the resulting product is as good as it can be, but also that it’s the best way to have fun while doing it.

^[1] The reason I wrote “finally” here is not because the subject matter was dense or that the book wasn’t a lively read, but simply because I started reading the book while waiting at my daughter’s swimming lessons. When she stopped taking swimming lessons, the book simply waited for me to get back to it—and I’m glad I finally did!