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jmcphers | 5 months ago

I don't have a source for this, but I believe the term Microserfs was not minted by Coupland and predates his work.

(I worked at Microsoft from 2004 - 2013)

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JohnFen|5 months ago

My colleagues and I were using the term years before that book. I always assumed he used the title because it was already recognizable slang.

It was just one example of a long tradition of collective nicknames for employees of computer and software companies. For instance, Digital Equipment Corporation employees were "digits", Wang employees were "wankers", and so on.