How to Get Good at Losing Your Job

I started posting chapters of a memoir calledHow to Get Good at Losing Your Jobon Substack in April, 2026, and recently posted the final chapter. I noticed a couple things. First, that by far the most views I got were on posts that related to an article I wrote in 2015 that went viral and that led to my public shaming. I resurrected the article around the same time that many on the left suddenly had a lot to say about 'Woke 1.0' and the cancel culture of the 2010s. I've been told over the years that mine was the first instance of cancel culture that they remembered. I certainly learned a lot about myself and society by going through that experience, which I suppose drove my impulse to write a memoir in the first place. I've also come to realize that although the memoir is written sequentially, it doesn't necessarily have to be read that way. So I thought I'd offer a reconstructed table of contents if you're interested in cherry-picking or reading the book according to theme rather than in sequence. Following are the ways in which you might readHow to Get Good at Losing Your Job,if you are inclined. Thearticle I wrote over a decade ago that got me in a lot of hot watergrabbed the second highest number of eyeballs. The follow up,describing the fallout from that article, got the most views. I wrote about my experiences working at Amazon in two chapters. First, there was the chapter in whichI worked for Amazon Customer Service from 1998-2000, then a chapter covering when I returned to Amazon in 2004 andworked on the Media Merchandising team, during which I got to have lunch with David Lynch and got mocked to my face by Jeff Bezos. Drugstore.com Apex Learning Amazon (second stint) Expedia A couple marketing agencies SADA Here's young Ryan, trying to make heads and tails of it all. The first chapterfeatures my dad's civil engineering office. There's a chapter aboutthe influence of my maternal grandfather, who served in three wars and worked on the ENIAC, arguably the world's first vacuum computer. I did a sort of experiment using second person in a chapter aboutmy teenage journalism career. This chapter set during my undergraduate college years recallsthe years right before everybody was constantly online, when we had to deal with dial-up modems and SEMACS windows to access the Internet. There's a chapter that's largely aboutKafka's 'In the Penal Colony'and another that's abouta short story by Jorge Luis Borges. Again, I have come to realize that the memoir encourages cherry-picking and I have no qualms about anybody picking and choosing what bits they want to read. But if you're inclined to start from the beginning and march on through, here's a proper table of contents. Chapter 1: HP-85Early days in my dad's office, first inklings about technology. Chapter 2: ENIACMy grandfather's influence on how I think about computers. Chapter 3: A Geneology of ToolsKafka stuff, also a riff on how tools evolve over time. Chapter 4: NewsprintWhen I was in high school, I wrote sports stories and took pictures for my local weekly newspaper. This chapter is about that. Chapter 5: Hippie College Computer LabI went to The Evergreen State College from 1991-1995. Screen savers on color monitors were a huge, huge deal. Chapter 6: Fine ArtsI went to Bennington College for my MFA. Fond memories of that program. Chapter 7: Amazon.comWorking in Customer Service, between 1998 and 2000, from when the company only sold books through when they launched Amazon Auctions. Chapter 8: Drugstore.comJesus Christ what a miserable company. Chapter 9: Microsoft9/11 happened while I was working there Chapter 10: Apex LearningThe most 'The Office' type of office I ever worked at. Chapter 11: AmazonMy second tour of duty with the e-commerce giant. Encounters with Bezos, David Lynch, and Gene Simmons of KISS. Chapter 12: NetflixI wrote synopses for the sleeves on the DVDs that you'd get in the mail. Chapter 13: ParentingBeing a new dad. Chapter 14: TeachingI started teaching in a Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program. Incredibly fun and rewarding for many years. Chapter 15: Novel #4Figuring out how to write the sort of novel I really wanted to write. Chapter 16: ExpediaMy god was this one ever boring. Chapter 17: Goddard CollegeMy god was this one ever not boring. Chapter 18: HeadbangingThat time I hung out back stage at a Mötley Crüe concert. Chapter 19: IcelandMy first of three trips so far to the land of the midnight sun. Chapter 20: A Short Story By Jorge Luis BorgesOn 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.' Chapter 21: FatheringBrutal. Chapter 22: Cities of LiteratureIn a period of 18 months, I traveled to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands; Reykjavik, Iceland; Paris, France; Norwich, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Dublin, Ireland; and Chengdu, China. Chapter 23: TeeteringYeah, then everything started to kind of unravel there for awhile. Chapter 24: Things I Can SayThe article that got me canceled. Chapter 25: Collapsing, ExpandingAn aftermath. Chapter 26: Realities, Virtual and OtherwiseDiscovering a new community with VR and becoming friends with Amanda Knox. Chapter 27: Immersion NetworksA stealth-mode audio technology lab in the woods. Chapter 28: Amor FatiYoga, Eastern wisdom, Salinger. Chapter 29: SADALaid off again. I intend to keep posting here on the 'stack, but I'm kind of squishy about what those posts will entail. I have a pile of manuscripts that I want to get published and I'm considering serializing another memoir or a novel. But I'm on the fence. I'll open up comments here, so feel free to weigh in. 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