A funny, subversively venomous look at the vagaries of IT support.
An irreverent insider’s guide to the world of IT.
In his nonfiction debut, Korga, who’s “spent an alarming number of years in DevOps, Platform Engineering, and other forms of YAML-based masochism,” writes on all aspects of the IT experience, from the language of dealing with customers and clients to establishing companies to dealing with AI (“Welcome to the age of artificial everything – accuracy sold separately”). He employs thousands of single-sentence paragraphs and tables of information instead of lengthy prose to convey his own wry approach to all these aspects of the industry. A frequent theme is his wariness about the actual customers and their perception of what IT does and doesn’t do. “When technical disasters threaten mission objectives and stakeholders demand explanations, fixing issues becomes secondary to narrative control,” he writes. “You don’t fix the bug – you weaponize it.” Repeatedly, Korga presents handy tables that decipher, for example, an HR phrase (“Let’s revisit this in the next cycle”), what that phrase sounds like (“maybe later”), and its actual meaning (“never”). In all of this, sarcasm seasons the book and is often deliciously deadpan (“Finance doesn’t block your requests because they hate you,” he writes. “They block them because they don’t even remember what you do”). The author’s thoughts on the stupidity (and cupidity) of tech startups (dubbed “Startupistan”) are particularly withering. For example, “In Starupistan, the regime does not fail; it simply enters a Glorious New Phase of the Revolution.” Readers who know nothing of tech support might find all this insider snark impenetrable, but even newbies will appreciate the chuckles.
A funny, subversively venomous look at the vagaries of IT support.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9783000838255
Page Count: 300
Publisher: QuackFoundry Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An in-depth, engaging look at the making of a physician.
A debut literary novel focuses on a young doctor in Texas.
At the outset of Albedo’s story, the year is 1932. Neva Pettibone, who has endured six stillborn births, is in labor again. The attending doctor is not really a licensed physician at all. Zebulon “Doc” Callaway is a pharmacist who practices medicine illegally. Nevertheless, Doc’s patients are glad to have him. When Neva gives birth, the infant is alive, albeit with a number of health problems. The baby will be named Ivy. She will spend her adult life as a ward of the state. Fast-forward several years, and Doc’s grandson Chase Callaway is in medical school. Chase is a bright young man with a photographic memory. He works part time at Matherville State Mental Hospital, where Ivy happens to live. Readers follow along as Chase experiences highs and lows in his pursuit of becoming a doctor. Whether Chase is dealing with the suicide of a classmate, the death of a patient, an ornery instructor, or simply the fact that he has been awake for one too many hours, he seems determined to come out on top. All the while, he manages to strike up a friendship of sorts with Ivy. Chase’s quest to become a physician proves a spectacularly detailed affair. This is particularly true with regard to medical concepts. Readers will learn about a bilateral syndactyly, a triple valve replacement, and the stresses of a medical residency program. And when Chase has his doubts about both the attitudes of the medical establishment and his own place in it, an insightful portrait is created. But other details can distract readers from the main journey. Many characters, such as Chase’s fellow medical student Porter Piscotel, are provided extensive backstories that do not add much to the main narrative. Do readers need to know about Porter’s time in the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets to understand his cocky, no-nonsense attitude? The story is more engrossing when it concentrates on the many mountains Chase needs to climb.
An in-depth, engaging look at the making of a physician.Pub Date: May 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-944715-83-0
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An effective primer on probability.
A nonfiction book examines the problems with probability.
If debates about vaccines and masks during the Covid-19 pandemic revealed anything, it was that people of all ideological persuasions could find statistics to “prove” their points. The infamous manipulation of statistics has long been a cliché, yet even the most learned have been known to make fundamental logical and mathematical errors when discussing probability. As Lockwood convincingly demonstrates in this book, experts in a variety of fields have sometimes been “confused by the odds.” Examples abound in the fraught terrain of probabilities, as seen in the criminal justice system with DNA evidence, the expected financial returns compiled by investment bankers, and 21st-century military strategies where supposedly decisive victories proved elusive. Emphasizing the role of humans in shaping and interpreting statistics, the author suggests that even the most seemingly neutral studies should pay a closer attention to people’s intrusions and prejudices. Intellectual tests that measure IQ, for instance, do not account for cultural biases embedded in question banks. Surveying the history of probability from its origins in Renaissance Italy through its polarization during the Covid-19 pandemic, this book eschews complex mathematical formulas for an approach that centers on “real-world problems.” Though the application of probability is the volume’s focus, its theoretical underpinnings stress the value of causal diagrams and Bayes’ theorem, which has been extremely effective in filtering unwanted emails. A former Wall Street senior executive and business lecturer at Stanford University, Lockwood is the author of two previous works that focused on the practical applicability of social and mathematical theories. This work follows in that tradition, carefully balancing an approachable writing style geared toward nonmathematicians with a solid research foundation that includes almost 40 pages of endnotes and bibliographic references. And while it may not contain any groundbreaking scholarship given the ubiquitous use (and misuse) of probability in today’s society, this is an important reminder about the value and pitfalls of applying it to real-world scenarios.
An effective primer on probability.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 979-8886450033
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
