I agree, I couldn't follow his story at all - it felt like they were hamming up the dropout-to-founder route, but it just felt off

I'm sat, I'm kneeled, I'm in child's pose, I'm groveling

The spikes on this were triggering

I also met Sierra at Torpedo Factory, and am halfway through the book! It was gorgeous and thematically heavy. I'm waiting to tiptoe back into it. But I thoroughly enjoyed it so far and Sierra was great.