Maybe once a decade a compelling book arrests my attention with its ability to accurately capture current culture and the state of the technology industry or digital innovation. In the mid-’90s, that book was Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs. M.T. Anderson’s Feed and Po Bronson’s The First $20 Million Is Always The Hardest are two other works that, at least for me, demonstrated similar capacities. Now a new title has arrived from a new but maybe not so unsurprising source.

Anyone who’s familiar with Wallace-i, the David Foster Wallace-related listserv, The International DFW Society or the Concavity Show podcast should know Matt Bucher. The guy stays busy. He’s a podcast producer, content developer, editor, project and product manager and now, author.

Bucher’s tidy new gem of a novella, The Belan Deck, reminded me at once of Microserfs. You can tell Bucher’s spent time working within technical capacities, and he’s familiar with Austin and San Francisco (where companies for which I once worked some eight or so years were headquartered and I also traveled regularly). The new novella captures all the angst AI is generating in a frenetic industry known for moving uncomfortably fast and, at times, in seemingly alien and arrogant ways.

Whether touching on art or artificial intelligence, corporate values or the enduring potential of a Field Notes journal, Bucher rapidly covers vast ground. If you’re seeking a unique and original contemporary read exploring many of today’s challenges, a work that will remain with you long after you’ve finished, give this new book a go. You won’t view a PowerPoint presentation or overzealous CEO the same way again, I promise.