Disruption' is a story about what it is like to try to reinvent yourself and start a new career at fifty in an industry hostile especially for older workers.

For twenty-five years, Dan Lyons was editor of one of the most important magazines in his sector, until one Friday morning when he received a phone call: poof. His work no longer existed. "I think they just want to hire younger people," his Newsweek boss told him.

At fifty years old, with a wife and two young children, Dan was, in a word, screwed. Then an idea came to mind. Dan had long written about Silicon Valley and the technological explosion. Why not join? HubSpot, a Boston startup, was flush with $100 million in venture capital. Dan was offered a bunch of stock options in exchange for accepting a strange "marketing partner" role. What could go wrong?

HubSpotters were true believers: they were making the world a better place... selling spam. The atmosphere of the office was a mix between a university fraternity and a sectarian complex: the party began at half past four on Friday and lasted well into the night; shower cabins became dens for sex; A push-up club met at noon in the lobby, while near them, in the "content factory", others played shots in a video game. There were groups going to "walking meetings" and Dan's absent boss sent cryptic emails about employees who had "graduated" (read: fired). In the middle of it all was Dan, exactly twice the age of the average HubSpot employee, and literally old enough to be the father of most of his coworkers, sitting at his desk on an inflatable ball that was supposed to be his chair.

But this book is more than HubSpot. This is a story about what it's like to try to reinvent yourself and start a new career in your fifties, particularly in an industry that is generally hostile to older workers. It's a story about how work itself has changed and how some companies that claim to be "making the world a better place" are doing the opposite.