Slaying the Dragon

Hello everyone! I am seeing more and more people taking down their “open to work” banners on LinkedIn. I also see and intermittently share roles advertised by people I have worked with or would want to work with. If you cannot take down your own green LinkedIn banner, I hope you take this as a sign that people are hiring and to stay positive.

I am staring at my row of Post-Its for blog topics and am satisfied with the depths of conversations we will have in the coming months. I also looked at the time of year and found that almost none are related to recruiting or hiring. Have I talked myself out on this subject? That cannot be true.

The SEO people reading this blog post will stare at me like I am a crazy person when I say, “I have written lots on this subject, and it is randomly scattered through my blog.” Go forth and dig. Search on interview. Search on resume. I have previously called out the lack of clickening that happens here when I try linkening. It does not work. You are all not programmed that way. When I get my “least successful Amazon Affiliate of the Year” award, as I earn it for another consecutive year from Amazon, I have all of you to thank. I do not fear the day they remove my affiliate code due to underperformance… I know you are all here for the spice of the follow-up post when I am not worthy to attempt to steal money from the Bezos.

We are all fighting our own battles, aren’t we?

Now that I have said I am trying to help you get enjobbened, I will pop the clutch. I am going to talk about a book I have just read. I am going to give you an Amazon Affiliate Link to it.

“If you are going to buy any one thing I recommend to you this year, let it be this book.” – John Szeder

I will not meander for three paragraphs before I tell you what it is, like some kind of internet recipe website. It is “Slaying the Dragon” by Ben Riggs.

I read this book cover to cover last weekend in one sitting. It talks about TSR, the company behind Dungeons and Dragons, and it was a fascinating read.

You all know that I am a huge roleplaying game nerd. I love the craft so much I have built my own tools for it decades ago. I even ported them to the Modern Web so you could also try them out. Sure, the derfdice launch coincided with the arrival of generative AI, which utterly destroyed its commercial potential, but there was another value for me in building out the site. We can go into that in the future.

I spend a decent amount of time talking to people about building companies and games. Building games is a peculiar bloodsport. I am an intermittent addict to the hobby, and sometimes it becomes more than that. I mention this because this book is now a must-read for anyone I mentor in building games or building content for consumer content in general.

The takeaways from the book are powerful. On reading the final pages, I was… how do the kids say it… shook.

The book masterfully talks about brand value, strategy, and business practices that will make you laugh and cry, often at the same time. There is a mild editorial streak woven into the history. It is hard to detect, but it is there. I happen to agree with the editorial, so I will not complain about it too much. Dare I spoil it for the unsuspecting reader? I consider myself a Spoiler Police enthusiast in good standing; therefore, I must not.

I want to take this moment to bring this full circle now. This is a great book to read if you are looking for a job. People will be looking for interesting things to discuss in your interviews to discover who you are. They will also search for things that make you stand out over other candidates.

Talking about this book would help you get a job. There. I said it.

There are strategy lessons in this book that will demonstrate that you are an eager learner and curious about the fate of businesses. Coming up with your own stories about how you could have applied some of the lessons of this book to your own experience will make for an interesting narrative in an interview.

I am so profoundly impressed with this book that I am willing to buy a copy for someone who needs it.

If you are on the LinkedIn, have the Open To Work banner on your profile, and live in Canada or the United States, send me a message saying, “I wish to read Slaying the Dragon.”

I do not want to add geographic constraints to this. However, I have heard horror stories about shipping to other countries.

From those who reach out, I will randomly pick one person to send a copy of this incredible book. If you are reading this on the other socials, you can send me a message, too. Kindly include your LinkedIn profile with the message to qualify.

This is the kind of thing that you do when you have internet celebrity status. I do not. I am a fan of this book and interested in helping people, even if it is just one person. I am also not going to make you write an essay or anything similar; we will be like most startups and rely a little on the influence of Lady Luck.

If no one qualifies for a free book, I will figure out an alternative person to send this book to and talk about it in the future.

I will put a February 1 deadline on my little competition here. I am equally scared of getting zero people who want this book as I am getting 1000 people to ask me for it.

Either way, I will give you an update next week.