1990s 2004-season absurdity action action-packed adult-education adventure ai alternate-reality ambition ancient-sumerian artificial-intelligence autobiographical autobiography baseball boston boston-red-sox camaraderie canadian-literature championship chronicle coding comeback comedy comedy-writing coming-of-age communication computer-programming computer-science computer-virus conspiracy contemporary contemporary-fiction corporate-control corporate-culture corporate-life corporate-power corporate-world coupland cult-classic cults cultural-differences culture curse curse-of-the-bambino cyberpunk dark-comedy dark-humor david-ortiz dedication detective devotion diehard-fans digital-age digital-revolution douglas douglas-coupland dreams dysfunctional-family dystopia dystopian dystopian-future dystopian-society education entrepreneurship essays existential existentialism faith faithful family fandom fans fantasy fenway-park fiction france friendship future future-society futuristic gaming geek-culture geeks generation-x hacker hacking haruki-murakami historic history hope humor humor-writing identity identity-crisis innovation internet japan japanese-literature jpod language language-barrier language-barriers language-learning learning linguistics literature loneliness love loyalty magical-realism memoir metafiction metaphysical metaverse microserfs microsoft mind-bending mind-control mystery mythology nerd-culture nerds neurolinguistics new-york-yankees non-fiction nonfiction novel obsession office-culture office-life office-politics onan paris passion perseverance personal-essays personal-growth philosophical philosophy post-apocalyptic postmodern postmodernism programming quest red-sox redemption relationships religion resilience rivalry romance samurai sarcasm satire science-fiction self-deprecating self-deprecating-humor self-discovery sheep silicon-valley social-commentary software software-development sports start-up start-up-culture start-ups startup-culture supernatural surreal surrealism suspense sword-fighting swordfighting symbolism teaching team team-spirit teamwork technology thriller tokyo transformation travel triumph unconventional underdog underdogs vancouver victory video-games virtual-reality wit witty work-life-balance workplace workplace-culture workplace-dynamics world-series