Lyons' book is entertaining and funny, and offers a rare inside look at the kind of frat-house and cult-like cultures that populate parts of the tech world, as well as raising important questions about age bias and the social contract in the workplace today. But at times, its tone can also be a bit condescending and self-absorbed.
Lyons doesn’t get below the surface of the place, or get to know anyone; connection and insight don’t seem to be his strengths ... Lyons’s book derails about three-quarters of the way through, as he becomes obsessed with the unpredictable behavior of one of his co-workers, a fellow he calls Trotsky, toward him. (Almost everyone in the book has been given a mildly clever pseudonym.) The reader can’t make sense of their relationship either, and soon stops caring enough to try.
Lyons’ tone throughout the book isn’t necessarily bitter, but he doubtless holds a few grudges about the way that his former colleagues and bosses treated him. I would too. For the most part, I found him humble and self-reflective. At times, though, he is downright scathing ... It would be incomplete to classify Disrupted as merely an Office Space-esque critique of Corporate America. It also serves as social commentary about the way that more senior employees are viewed and valued in a hyper-agressive startup culture hell bent on an IPO.
