Joe Berkowitz - You blew it! : an awkward look at the many ways in which youve already ruined your life

T his book would not be possible without the tireless shepherding of Noah Ballard at Curtis Brown and the enthusiastic championing of Matthew Daddona at Plume. Those two guys really wanted to see You Blew It! come together, and thats mainly why it did. Emma Sweeney was instrumental as well, and we owe a big loving embrace to the entire team at Plume.

From Josh Gondelman:

Id like to extend deep and sincere thanks to the following people for the following reasons:

To my mom and dad for being fully supportive of my creative endeavors as long as they provided me health care. To my sister Jenna for being the actual best sibling and also for going halves on birthday gifts for my parents during my years of wild nonsuccess. To Maris for encouraging me, but more important for inspiring me by setting an example for a brilliant dedicated professional and human. To the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who have always cheered me on and whove even stopped asking, You make a living at that? To Chenoa, Tiffany, Taryn, and Marcus for being pals and being world-beaters. To all the great writing instructors I had at Brandeis for cultivating my silly jokes into complete sentences. To the comedy communities of Boston and New York for not putting up with any crap. And to the Arlington Infant Toddler Center for putting up with all of my crap.

From Joe Berkowitz:

Large swaths of this book were written in the following locations: Breukelen Coffee House in Crown Heights, Whole Foods in Tribeca, Aroma Espresso Bar on Church Street, and Starbucks on Chambers Street. Thanks to the supreme leniency of my editor at Fast Company, Teressa Iezzi, for giving me time to work on this book. Thanks to Gabriele OConnor, my moon and stars, who gave invaluable feedback and encouragement throughout the whole process and beyond. Howard Berkowitz and Ris Page were nothing but supportive when I wrote a story in first grade about sentient pink clouds and it runner-upped in some bullshit competitionand they continue to be supportive to this day. Rita Pagenkopf suggested I become an English teacher perhaps one (thousand) too many times but only because she cared about me a lot. Thanks to Phil and Allison, Dana, Lauren, and Debbie for being family. Thanks to the residents of Witkem (Kyla Ernst-Alper, Molly Ernst-Alper, Mendel Rabinovitch, Austin Mitchell, Melissa Corning, and Alex Weinberg) for positive vibes. Thanks to my therapist, even though a distinct, lifelong lack of Lexapro created invaluable research for the topic at hand.