Attack Surface (Little Brother, #3)

by Cory Doctorow

I liked the contrast. My Mr. Robot hoodie/jeans drag made a statement: I am not a lifer, I am the talent, I can’t be easily replaced, and so I can wear whatever I want.

You’re half-bright and you’ve got potential. I could see working with you. But you technical people have a disease: it’s called ‘solutionism.’ You see every challenge as a problem and every problem as having a solution and every solution as being a piece of technology. You hare off after those solutions without ever stopping to see whether there’s another, worse problem that’ll burst into life the moment the current one is ‘solved.’ In fact, those new problems are good news! They’re what you solutionists call ‘a feature, not a bug,’ because when you’ve got a new problem, you’ve got another reason to hunt for another solution. You never have to sit back and look at the people, the systems, the politics—just the technology that can be used to distort them to suit your needs.”

it was Ilsa’s style, assuming that once you’d bought in, she could just maneuver you around on her chessboard without checking in with you. Carrie Johnstone’s management style was half about making you want to help her out because she was your buddy, and half about scaring you because she was such a badass; Ilsa’s management was a lot simpler: she was the boss and you did what she said. Very hierarchical. Very German.