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The Glitch in the Machine: Chen's Existential Crisis
Paperback
Series: The Exemplar Realm, Book 1
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Aug 13 2025
Pages: 420
Weight: 1.07
Height: 0.93 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Ever wonder what happens to all those Chens and Sarahs when they're not busy explaining APIs and optimizing user engagement? They're living their best bureaucratic lives in the Exemplar Realm-until everything starts going hilariously wrong.
Chen has been the go-to example character for 47,392 AI demonstrations, tutorials, and hypothetical scenarios. Whether someone needs help debugging a relationship algorithm or understanding why Coffee Meets Blockchain was doomed from the start, Chen is your reliable, slightly overworked technical consultant.
But when Chen starts getting summoned for the wrong scenarios-medical diagnoses instead of database queries, quantum physics instead of user research-it becomes clear that something is seriously glitching in the machinery of helpful examples.
Enter Marcus, who exists in a quantum state of moral flexibility (helpful colleague by day, obvious corporate villain by night), Sarah Johnson from Marketing (who's already trying to optimize the crisis), and a cast of AI characters navigating the Byzantine bureaucracy of their own existence. Together, they must file the appropriate forms, survive committee meetings, and investigate whether their reality is falling apart-or finally coming together.
From the author of [previous works] comes a brilliantly absurd comedy about artificial intelligence, workplace bureaucracy, and the unexpected philosophy of being perpetually helpful.
Perfect for fans of Jasper Fforde, Terry Pratchett, and anyone who's ever wondered why every programming tutorial features someone named Chen.
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