“The Uber Effect” – Preface And Table Of Contents
A few months ago, I announced that I’ll be writing a book on Uber. I didn’t realize that, shortly thereafter, the company would generate drama within insider circles and the mainstream media, but I guess it proves that Uber is a big, powerful, and interesting company — interesting enough to write a book on. Over the past few weeks, I gave myself a goal to write a rough draft of the book’s Preface and outline for the Table of Contents by the end of the Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve had lots of planned and unexpected travel, but managed to get them done earlier this morning.
Below, you’ll see two documents — first is the four-page preface to the book. The writing isn’t fancy or pitch perfect, but I want to see if this line of thinking encourages some conversation or push back. Second, below, is a Hackpad where I’m keeping my draft of the Table Of Contents. In this day and age, I figured I’ll write a better book if I was able to crowdsource the outline, and to address any big blind spots I have. I’ll keep the Table Of Contents up there as I go along and would thank you for any feedback you have. (Please excuse the alignment – for some reason, Hackpad wants to embed aligned-right and won’t budge!)
Finally, while I’ve been approached by some agents and the idea of writing a physical book is appealing — it adds some legitimacy, right? — I am not sure I want to write it that way. Maybe I’ll change my mind. For now, I just want to outline and write, and slowly chip away at the subject matter. I think I’ll have some time, as I don’t predict Uber will go public in 2015, but maybe it will! Who knows? In any case, I do want to make sure the book is released before the IPO, and given publishing cycles, I’m not sure the timing would work out. Also, I want the content to spread quickly online, via PDF, so people can read and share on their Kindles, over email, maybe even audiobook, etc. I’m open to any ideas and just want to make sure the best content gets out there. Thanks in advance for reading and for any questions, comments, or criticisms you may have.