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The Show
Think of the greatest tech company in the world. Imagine getting a job there. Picture the perks: free gourmet food, free booze, a gym, a swimming pool, and a holiday bonus . . . every month. Brilliant coworkers. No dress code. Great parties. More money. Everyone’s admiration.
Vic is just like any other Harvard grad out there, except that he just scored a job at tech empire SHOW. But in the hunt for success and happiness, he falls into a shady world of sex, drugs, and swindle. The young tech elites are just as greedy as Wall Street bankers, but all the more cunning. Meanwhile, an office affair is brewing, and his father’s absence adds to Vic’s decline.
The darker, drug-fueled parallel to Dave Eggers’ The Circle, Filip Syta's debut novel, The Show, offers a raw glimpse into the dangerous evolution of the tech world.
Vic is just like any other Harvard grad out there, except that he just scored a job at tech empire SHOW. But in the hunt for success and happiness, he falls into a shady world of sex, drugs, and swindle. The young tech elites are just as greedy as Wall Street bankers, but all the more cunning. Meanwhile, an office affair is brewing, and his father’s absence adds to Vic’s decline.
The darker, drug-fueled parallel to Dave Eggers’ The Circle, Filip Syta's debut novel, The Show, offers a raw glimpse into the dangerous evolution of the tech world.
- GenresFiction
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 5, 2016
4 people are currently reading
511 people want to read
About the author
Filip Syta
2 books17 followersFilip Syta is a former Google employee who chose to leave the tech world behind to satisfy his constant urge to write and to pursue his ambition of becoming a novelist. He was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011, he graduated with a master’s degree in entrepreneurship from Lund University, Lund, Sweden. He aspires to make readers identify the truly important things in life.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 5, 2016
I read Filip Syta’s The Show (published by Inkshares) a few weeks ago, and it was the final nail in a coffin that’s been long in the making. I knew that I couldn’t review the book with any kind of honesty until I’d given it some time to marinate, and waited for certain changes in my life (detailed below) to take place.
To be frank, I’m still not even sure if I liked the book. The writing didn’t pull me in, though it’s mechanically good, and the protagonist is, for most of the book, a patently shitty person.
But the book does one thing exceptionally well, which earns it a high rating in my opinion: it is deeply—almost painfully—honest about the experience of working in the tech world.
Vic, the star of The Show, picks up and moves to San Francisco, a gleam in his eye as he considers his future with “Show”—a company which is never explicitly called, but definitely is, Google. He knows he’s going to work at one of the coolest companies in the world, and that the name alone is enough to cast a halo over his head. He’s part of the Biggest Thing On Earth(TM).
He sees the world around him as his new plaything. He is intoxicated by his newfound wealth, and the ostentation of his industry and company. He sees, but doesn’t acknowledge, the gross and growing wealth disparity in San Francisco. He is fed, liquored up, and paid handsomely. And for a time, he works hard for it.
But for the most part, he fritters away his time getting wasted, chasing casual sex, and generally being a cocky asshole. Eventually, he just spends his time drunk between hangovers and lying to his clients and supervisors.
I’ve worked with Vic. I’ve worked with many Vics.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to launch into a diatribe against everyone I used to work with, or millennials, or anything like that. I’m going to talk about the way working in tech changed me.
In tech, as in anywhere in the world, there are good and bad people. But my observations tell me that a higher percentage of cutthroat sociopaths chase the “easy” money in tech than want to, say, fix a cup of coffee or wait tables. I could be wrong. Grass is always greener, I suppose.
I started working in tech due to a stroke of luck. A close friend opened the door, and I gladly walked through it. I vibrated with excitement at the prospect of being gainfully employed, making more money than I could honestly believe, at one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, at twenty-one. I drank deeply of the kool-aid; practically swore allegiance to the company.
Slowly, my idea of the company began to fade. That vision was shattered into dust by my first Vegas conference.
I watched obscenely wealthy people mingle with their much-poorer paid associates from around the country, getting belligerent drunk, exposing their gross misogyny and brutishness, cloaked in the false twilight of casino floors, glowing with liquor and fake attention from paid hyper-sexualized women.
I watched people cheat on their spouses, or at least try. I dragged a nearly-unconscious executive, her dress torn well above her waist, to her room, lest she be set upon by less-than-savory, lecherous creeps who likely disregarded her words at meetings. A married co-worker tried wrapping her leg around me at the bar we’d rented out for the opening night drinkfest. I escaped to my room to read a book with a dragon on the cover.
I watched the jaws of a trap spring shut around my mind. I felt like I was careening hopelessly toward becoming what I saw, drawn in by the enormous gravity well that forms from trying to buy your way out of bone-deep dissatisfaction.
That isn’t to say that the entirety of my tech life was bad. I made great friends, worked diligently, and learned a great many things. I do not consider these last seven years wasted.
But in reading The Show, I realized that it was past time for me to leave that life and try to make it some other way. I want to create. To write. To read. To listen. To explore. To exercise. The exhaustion, mental and physical, that was the result of day-in-day-out rat racery stifled my creative mind. It made me a poorer listener. It made me lazy. It also made me deeply depressed, a condition for which I’m now medicated.
There are moments in The Show that remind me so much of my own experience, that resonate so truthfully with the things I’ve seen in my (admittedly short) time in tech that I reeled as I read. As the plot thickened and Vic realized that his life was falling apart despite appearances to the contrary, I saw myself reflected in the pages.
The whole book encapsulates the zeitgeist of silicone valley tech so accurately that it is difficult to point to one passage call it an exemplar of techbro life.
But if I had to choose, I’d pick this one:
“The next day, I was back at work and was in a meeting that was about a previous meeting, which had had to discuss another meeting that we’d had in response to a meeting someone had had with someone else. Almost everyone in the room was sitting with their laptops open browsing the internet, reopening the same websites over and over again to see if anything new had happened during the twenty seconds since they’d last checked.”
I’ve been in those meetings.
There’s one other moment in the book that comes to mind as particularly resonant. Shortly after one member of the crew says that he feels like his mind is putrefying on the job, during another moment of vulnerability, a colleague tells Vic that he went to seek help at the on-site mental health services clinic.
“’You know what they said when I wanted to sign up for an appointment?’
‘That you should do some cocaine and you’ll be fine?’ I smiled.
‘Wouldn’t surprise me. No, that there is a waiting list of two thousand employees, and the first available appointment is in eight weeks. Aren’t we supposed to work at the best place in the world? How can there be so many of us in need of a shrink?…’”
Why indeed.
Yesterday was my last day at the big tech company. Today, I start something entirely new.
To be frank, I’m still not even sure if I liked the book. The writing didn’t pull me in, though it’s mechanically good, and the protagonist is, for most of the book, a patently shitty person.
But the book does one thing exceptionally well, which earns it a high rating in my opinion: it is deeply—almost painfully—honest about the experience of working in the tech world.
Vic, the star of The Show, picks up and moves to San Francisco, a gleam in his eye as he considers his future with “Show”—a company which is never explicitly called, but definitely is, Google. He knows he’s going to work at one of the coolest companies in the world, and that the name alone is enough to cast a halo over his head. He’s part of the Biggest Thing On Earth(TM).
He sees the world around him as his new plaything. He is intoxicated by his newfound wealth, and the ostentation of his industry and company. He sees, but doesn’t acknowledge, the gross and growing wealth disparity in San Francisco. He is fed, liquored up, and paid handsomely. And for a time, he works hard for it.
But for the most part, he fritters away his time getting wasted, chasing casual sex, and generally being a cocky asshole. Eventually, he just spends his time drunk between hangovers and lying to his clients and supervisors.
I’ve worked with Vic. I’ve worked with many Vics.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to launch into a diatribe against everyone I used to work with, or millennials, or anything like that. I’m going to talk about the way working in tech changed me.
In tech, as in anywhere in the world, there are good and bad people. But my observations tell me that a higher percentage of cutthroat sociopaths chase the “easy” money in tech than want to, say, fix a cup of coffee or wait tables. I could be wrong. Grass is always greener, I suppose.
I started working in tech due to a stroke of luck. A close friend opened the door, and I gladly walked through it. I vibrated with excitement at the prospect of being gainfully employed, making more money than I could honestly believe, at one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, at twenty-one. I drank deeply of the kool-aid; practically swore allegiance to the company.
Slowly, my idea of the company began to fade. That vision was shattered into dust by my first Vegas conference.
I watched obscenely wealthy people mingle with their much-poorer paid associates from around the country, getting belligerent drunk, exposing their gross misogyny and brutishness, cloaked in the false twilight of casino floors, glowing with liquor and fake attention from paid hyper-sexualized women.
I watched people cheat on their spouses, or at least try. I dragged a nearly-unconscious executive, her dress torn well above her waist, to her room, lest she be set upon by less-than-savory, lecherous creeps who likely disregarded her words at meetings. A married co-worker tried wrapping her leg around me at the bar we’d rented out for the opening night drinkfest. I escaped to my room to read a book with a dragon on the cover.
I watched the jaws of a trap spring shut around my mind. I felt like I was careening hopelessly toward becoming what I saw, drawn in by the enormous gravity well that forms from trying to buy your way out of bone-deep dissatisfaction.
That isn’t to say that the entirety of my tech life was bad. I made great friends, worked diligently, and learned a great many things. I do not consider these last seven years wasted.
But in reading The Show, I realized that it was past time for me to leave that life and try to make it some other way. I want to create. To write. To read. To listen. To explore. To exercise. The exhaustion, mental and physical, that was the result of day-in-day-out rat racery stifled my creative mind. It made me a poorer listener. It made me lazy. It also made me deeply depressed, a condition for which I’m now medicated.
There are moments in The Show that remind me so much of my own experience, that resonate so truthfully with the things I’ve seen in my (admittedly short) time in tech that I reeled as I read. As the plot thickened and Vic realized that his life was falling apart despite appearances to the contrary, I saw myself reflected in the pages.
The whole book encapsulates the zeitgeist of silicone valley tech so accurately that it is difficult to point to one passage call it an exemplar of techbro life.
But if I had to choose, I’d pick this one:
“The next day, I was back at work and was in a meeting that was about a previous meeting, which had had to discuss another meeting that we’d had in response to a meeting someone had had with someone else. Almost everyone in the room was sitting with their laptops open browsing the internet, reopening the same websites over and over again to see if anything new had happened during the twenty seconds since they’d last checked.”
I’ve been in those meetings.
There’s one other moment in the book that comes to mind as particularly resonant. Shortly after one member of the crew says that he feels like his mind is putrefying on the job, during another moment of vulnerability, a colleague tells Vic that he went to seek help at the on-site mental health services clinic.
“’You know what they said when I wanted to sign up for an appointment?’
‘That you should do some cocaine and you’ll be fine?’ I smiled.
‘Wouldn’t surprise me. No, that there is a waiting list of two thousand employees, and the first available appointment is in eight weeks. Aren’t we supposed to work at the best place in the world? How can there be so many of us in need of a shrink?…’”
Why indeed.
Yesterday was my last day at the big tech company. Today, I start something entirely new.
December 16, 2015
A captivating read, speaking directly to the reader on what is really important in life. Full of twists and turns, the story of Vic will become the new Wolf of Wall Street, making thousands of new generation workers re-think their priorities in life and figure out the true meaning of what they want to accomplish. The Show is full of wit, and keeps the reader entertained throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend to all.
January 4, 2016
One of two things happened with this book: either the author's superficial and shallow writing is suppose to mirror how the main character feels while working in the insanity that is the tech industry and I totally didn't get it (possible) OR the author just wrote down a continuing string of events like one would in a diary or TMI Facebook posts that aren't intended to make any connections but just to spout whatever is going on at the time and because he used to work in the tech industry we are all suppose to accept it as being hip and cool.
If it is the former, then the author will win a lot of awards and accolades and I can add it to the list of "great" books I did not care for. If it is the later, then perhaps it is because no one dared push the author to go deeper into his subject and I will look forward to seeing Mr. Syta's evolution as an writer.
A preview of this book was received from NetGalley in exchange for an objective review.
If it is the former, then the author will win a lot of awards and accolades and I can add it to the list of "great" books I did not care for. If it is the later, then perhaps it is because no one dared push the author to go deeper into his subject and I will look forward to seeing Mr. Syta's evolution as an writer.
A preview of this book was received from NetGalley in exchange for an objective review.
January 5, 2016
The story is great and the author makes a really good job at delivering it. Vic, the main character, starts of in a situation of hybris and "having it all", experiencing the parties, sex and drugs of the young tech world elite. But through the temptations he slowly gets to know the shallowness, the swindle and also the dangers of being part of the company and people he once admired. The author's background in the tech world and his way of writing offers a lot of credibility to the story. The book also presents us with an upcoming literary talent. My favorite moment reading the book was a couple of pages where Vic sits on a bench in the Golden Gate Park observing both the people and nature around him - perfectly written with a great sense of details and choice of words by the author.
April 7, 2018
This was a very weird book, whilst it was easy enough to read in one sitting, I didn't really find it interesting or connected with any of the characters. The story just didn't seem to be going anywhere, and when it finally decided where it was going, it couldn't get there quick enough.
February 15, 2016
Entertaining and somewhat funny. It's not the greatest writing.
July 24, 2019
It's kind of like Post Grad: Five Women and Their First Year Out of College except about the dirty kids you didn't want to be around (and they didn't want to be around you) in college.
June 11, 2018
Fun read but the book ends with a lot of loose ends
February 12, 2021
Fun glimpse into the world of tech jobs
April 17, 2017
I got this book in GoodReads giveaways in exchange for an honest review.
What could I say that nobody else already said? Maybe that I studied in computer programming, I could have known that lifestyle and some of my classmates have experienced something similar.
The major problem with these big companies is that they hire overqualified people for positions that end up by boring them. And when you get bored, you do things you shouldn't. Depending on your personality, you take unnecessary risks or you end up doing your work routine like a little robot, almost falling asleep on your computer.
In The Show, drugs are flowing like a stream within the company building. There are in-house providers on every floor who all look like the average Joe, and you just have to ask for a drug, whatever it is, to get it.
There are also a lot of partying and casual sex. Nobody seems interested in a real relationship.
And everyone cheats on figures and charts about clients. All that matters is to get excellent results, real or not. And since no one checks these data, everything is going on well.
An employee, as there is no doubt in all large companies, is always late. He has figured out how to keep his job while doing the least amount of work possible, e.g. he leaves his jacket and laptop on a different floor from his desk. He arrives late in the morning, carrying them from the other floor, so that it looks as if he was in an early meeting. He understood how to cheat the system and uses very well his knowledge to do so. As long as he gets paid, it's o.k.
Employees of the Show are like spoiled children, so used to getting everything they want, they complain about things that would make many other workers very happy.
The main character ends up bored and depressed to live in a so superficial world, deprived of true values or meaning. And I must say that in the end, even the reader ends up feeling the same. Is this a sign that the author succeeded well introducing his world to you or on the contrary, he failed to arouse our interest enough? I don't know. But that's the reason why I didn't give this book five stars.
What could I say that nobody else already said? Maybe that I studied in computer programming, I could have known that lifestyle and some of my classmates have experienced something similar.
The major problem with these big companies is that they hire overqualified people for positions that end up by boring them. And when you get bored, you do things you shouldn't. Depending on your personality, you take unnecessary risks or you end up doing your work routine like a little robot, almost falling asleep on your computer.
In The Show, drugs are flowing like a stream within the company building. There are in-house providers on every floor who all look like the average Joe, and you just have to ask for a drug, whatever it is, to get it.
There are also a lot of partying and casual sex. Nobody seems interested in a real relationship.
And everyone cheats on figures and charts about clients. All that matters is to get excellent results, real or not. And since no one checks these data, everything is going on well.
"Because the upper manager will not go down to the account manager-level and check. Of course they will see real cash flow coming in. But in specific cases of a specific client, they won't check. As long as it looks good everyone is happy because everyone cares only about their own task to look good to their next upper manager."
An employee, as there is no doubt in all large companies, is always late. He has figured out how to keep his job while doing the least amount of work possible, e.g. he leaves his jacket and laptop on a different floor from his desk. He arrives late in the morning, carrying them from the other floor, so that it looks as if he was in an early meeting. He understood how to cheat the system and uses very well his knowledge to do so. As long as he gets paid, it's o.k.
Employees of the Show are like spoiled children, so used to getting everything they want, they complain about things that would make many other workers very happy.
"They do everything that your mother doesn't do for you anymore. There's a dry-cleaning service, swimming pool, dentist, doctor, food, massage — you don't have to think about anything. You just go to work and it’s all taken care of."
The main character ends up bored and depressed to live in a so superficial world, deprived of true values or meaning. And I must say that in the end, even the reader ends up feeling the same. Is this a sign that the author succeeded well introducing his world to you or on the contrary, he failed to arouse our interest enough? I don't know. But that's the reason why I didn't give this book five stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2016
I received this book via a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an objective review.
Guy gets job at fancy company. Company looks great on the surface. Company isn't all it's cracked up to be. The end.
Man, after reading the synopsis of The Show, I really wanted to like it. I hate to say that I simply couldn't. It was the equivalent of being stuck in a corner at a party and a drunk guy comes up to you to tell you about his life through a stream of consciousness. The writing felt like an endless series of events that just sort of existed in order to tell a story. We went to a bar. Some guys were taking drugs at the bar. I ordered a whiskey. I flirted with a girl and we ended up having sex. I woke up with a slight hangover. I'm slowly starting to dislike my job. Over and over and over again.
The sequences were shallow and rushed and, at risk of spoiling the ending, they did not lead to any grand payoff. If this was all intentional to reflect the shallowness of the industry the main character was thrust into, then there might be some redemption for this book. I just don't think this was the intent.
Guy gets job at fancy company. Company looks great on the surface. Company isn't all it's cracked up to be. The end.
Man, after reading the synopsis of The Show, I really wanted to like it. I hate to say that I simply couldn't. It was the equivalent of being stuck in a corner at a party and a drunk guy comes up to you to tell you about his life through a stream of consciousness. The writing felt like an endless series of events that just sort of existed in order to tell a story. We went to a bar. Some guys were taking drugs at the bar. I ordered a whiskey. I flirted with a girl and we ended up having sex. I woke up with a slight hangover. I'm slowly starting to dislike my job. Over and over and over again.
The sequences were shallow and rushed and, at risk of spoiling the ending, they did not lead to any grand payoff. If this was all intentional to reflect the shallowness of the industry the main character was thrust into, then there might be some redemption for this book. I just don't think this was the intent.
June 1, 2016
I was really looking forward to this book being that I have worked in an advertising media company. I was expecting a witty, sly and clever book such as The Wolf of Wall Street or Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker but instead got painful prose that made such book that should have been a short read into a painful long read. "I did this... I did that....I looked here...I drank this..." etc. etc.
This is Filip's debut novel and I wished for him that he had spent more time sharpening his writing style. The line that kinda' made me upset was "When I woke up at my hotel the next morning, I could hear the rain smashing against the window like a group of angry wood-peckers pecking a tree". This is as bad as a physical assault for me.
I would have liked to have known a lot more about some of the characters especially his University friend Daniel or what happened with his ex girlfriend that made him scared to love again...in essence a bit more character development as someone on here mentioned.
I think Filip has potential as there were some nice bits in his novel but overall this first novel ranks below Liar's Poke which was an hilarious and revealing novel about life on Wall Street.
This is Filip's debut novel and I wished for him that he had spent more time sharpening his writing style. The line that kinda' made me upset was "When I woke up at my hotel the next morning, I could hear the rain smashing against the window like a group of angry wood-peckers pecking a tree". This is as bad as a physical assault for me.
I would have liked to have known a lot more about some of the characters especially his University friend Daniel or what happened with his ex girlfriend that made him scared to love again...in essence a bit more character development as someone on here mentioned.
I think Filip has potential as there were some nice bits in his novel but overall this first novel ranks below Liar's Poke which was an hilarious and revealing novel about life on Wall Street.
January 9, 2016
I once were one of the guys dreaming about a job at Google, pushing my grades to meet their requirements and to get a shot on the imaginary work place. This book, however, is an honest review of what's really going on there and an eye-opener from all the flattering and popular titles such as; Are you smart enough to work at Google; Work Rules!, etc
I also appreciate the writing style, which makes it a really easy read. I would recommend the book for yourself or as a gift for anyone in their beginning of their career or anyone that might consider working in the tech-industry.
And I look forward to the coming reads from the author.
I also appreciate the writing style, which makes it a really easy read. I would recommend the book for yourself or as a gift for anyone in their beginning of their career or anyone that might consider working in the tech-industry.
And I look forward to the coming reads from the author.
March 22, 2016
This book provides an all-too realistic account of the high-pressure lifestyle of the corporate world. It means well and tries to offer a moral lesson about "the important things in life." However, I found it boring. The novel doesn't use any compelling language or literary techniques to convey any message to the reader. It doesn't have much of a plot, unless you count description after description of drug-, alcohol-, sex-infused parties.
February 11, 2016
Very disappointing.
Can't believe I almost finished this book. Given it is supposed to be 90% Google based I thought I would read something interesting. The life of this 23 year old sales person is truly banal.
Can't believe I almost finished this book. Given it is supposed to be 90% Google based I thought I would read something interesting. The life of this 23 year old sales person is truly banal.
Read
March 22, 2016Very good book. I really enjoyed it. It is very well written. I am now having my teenaged daughter read it and she is enjoying it as well
February 29, 2016
Won on Goodreads in a free giveaway.
This young person went to so many trials to attain his goals to only realize that he did not want to be in that world.
This young person went to so many trials to attain his goals to only realize that he did not want to be in that world.
February 15, 2016
Worst writing and the Google shit-talking wasn't even creative/interesting.. confused.
June 28, 2021
It is a good book but makes me NEVER want to work for Google, etc ever.
March 8, 2016
"The Show" was a fascinating eye-opening look into Silicon Valley, though I hoped the quality of the writing was higher.
March 12, 2016
Poorly written. Lots of descriptions of food, but no emotions.
March 20, 2016
Geez, how do you make sex and drugs sound absolutely dreadfully boring?
April 7, 2018
This was a very weird book, whilst it was easy enough to read in one sitting, I didn't really find it interesting or connected with any of the characters. The story just didn't seem to be going anywhere, and when it finally decided where it was going, it couldn't get there quick enough.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews