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We're all about observations on work, culture, technology, and the curious theater of modern life.

Every once in a while you notice something slightly strange about modern life.

A meeting that seems to run entirely on jargon.

A software program that insists on having a conversation instead of doing its job.

A social media platform that quietly counts your reactions like a performance review.

You look around the room. Everyone else appears perfectly calm. You nod politely.  Inside, however, a small voice asks a perfectly reasonable question: Is it just me, or is something odd going on here?

That question is the beginning of CrankyBooks.

We're an independent publishing project exploring modern work, identity, media, technology, and culture through essays, satire, commentary, and books that try to make sense of the peculiar systems we all live inside.

Some of the writing appears as straightforward essays.

Some of it arrives through the voice of Brand Mavrick, fictional Creative Director of the Panopticon Agency, a place where advertising, reputation, ambition, and the theater of modern professional life collide.

The first book to emerge from this project is Cool on the Outside, Screaming on the Inside, which explores the curious tension between the composed image we project to the world and the complicated reality most of us experience beneath the surface.

But that is only the beginning.

Future books will wander into other territories as well—work, technology, investing, the algorithmic economy, and the odd psychological adjustments required to navigate modern life without losing one’s sense of humor.

Think of this site as a small laboratory for ideas, essays, and books that examine the modern world with curiosity, skepticism, and the occasional raised eyebrow.

The Book

Start with Cool on the Outside, Screaming on the Inside, a satirical look at the emotional performance of modern professional life. Feel free to request a complimentary audiobook edition.

Read Excerpts here

What is Cool?

Where it started, why it still matters

How Cool are You?

We've created a Cool Report to help you find out.

Here's our algorithm's take on what's Cool today

Take the test now

Reviews

What readers have said

Notes from Inside

Short reflections on work, technology, identity, the algorithm, and the small absurdities that appear once you begin paying attention.

Meet Brand Mavrick

Creative Director of the fictional Panopticon Agency and occasional narrator of the strange advertising campaign known as modern existence.

One Small Warning

This is not a motivational website.

You will not find ten steps to crushing your goals before sunrise.

What you may find instead are observations about:

- the algorithm

- corporate theater

- professional identity

- the psychology of modern work

- and the peculiar art of staying cool on the outside while quietly wondering what exactly is going on.

If opinionated essays, satire, and the occasional skeptical glance at modern life appeal to you, feel free to wander around.

That is what this place is for.