Fat Loser with a Laptop: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Self-Doubt, Delusion, and DIY Redemption
About this audiobook
A Memoir of Becoming, in Real Time
Some books are written after the fact—clean, tidy, polished.
This one’s different. It was written in the middle of the mess.
Part journal, part memoir, Fat Loser with a Laptop is the story of a man trying to level up—mentally, emotionally, spiritually—without a roadmap, a six-pack, or a plan that lasts longer than a week.
It’s a chronicle of quitting booze, healing family rifts, rediscovering joy, and figuring out what it means to show up for yourself when you’ve spent years trying to escape.
At once hilarious, heartbreaking, and deeply human, this book is for anyone who's felt like they’re behind in life—but refuses to stop trying.
About the author
Ricky Browne is a writer, thinker, creative oddball, and family man based in regional New South Wales, Australia.
He’s spent the last two decades navigating the tangled paths of mental illness, personal growth, and meaning-making—with schizophrenia as both his nemesis and unexpected creative ally.
Ricky writes like he’s talking to an old friend. His work is raw, thoughtful, often funny, and always human. He was sober for 20 months, a turning point that helped him reclaim his mind and rebuild his daily life around simple habits, big dreams, and messy imperfection. In between parenting, building quirky apps, and launching projects on little-tono budget, he journals semi-religiously—part therapy, part survival, part “just in case this ends up being useful to someone else.”
Fat Loser with a Laptop is a curated journal from one such season of life. It isn’t polished, and it isn’t self-help. But it might help anyway. Ricky is also the creator of LevelUpAtLife.org (Level Up Journal) and LevelUpAtLife.com (Actualisation Test) digital spaces designed to support clarity, growth, and momentum for people who don’t fit neatly into the traditional systems of success.
He lives with his brilliant and hilarious wife, their radiant daughter. He’s still figuring it out—but now, he writes it down.
You can start journaling yourself using his free writing app - get.freewriter.app
