"The hard thing about hard things: Building a business when there are no easy answers." by Ben Horowitz.

Great book that goes into great detail on the highs and lows of starting a business and how to run it. Pretty much cemented the idea that I will never start a business.

Link below: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0...

Ben Horowitz wrote a decent book about the endless difficulties of start-ups and business in general [1]. It's not so much strictly failure-learn focused (eg learning from the results of a failed start-up), as it is challenge-overcome focused (eg working your way through the never ending beating that is doing a start-up).

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0...

> Self driving cars are coming fast. It’s largely a solved problem.

Something about the Ninety-ninety rule seems appropriate here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

I think self driving cars are much closer to 10 years out than the "today" that the author asserts, but I think everyone agree's that we've reached the point where they are coming no matter what.

To give the author credit I went into reading this thinking he was absurd but he does make a good point, some of the points I think are over sold, like planned obsolescence but I think his thesis is sound.

One point I'll make on Uber's behalf......

Two of my all time favorite books are:

https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-Jerry-Kapla...

This history of Go computing.

and Ben Horowitz The hard thing about hard things.

https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0...

Both do a very good job of bringing the reader into the chaotic environment that occurs when startups are in trouble and both have a very similar message. When startups get in trouble having very powerful investors and mentors can make a huge difference.

Uber has some very influential backers. See:

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/investors

If/When times get tough, they have people who have a vested interest in seeing them succeed. People who can get them talking to the correct people at the car manufacturers to convince them to use Uber's platform over an internally created one.

If self driving laws drag on many years before they are settled then Uber may be fucked in the end but there isn't any reason why they can't be a cash printing machine over the next 10- 20 years while self driving cars replace humans.

As to car companies cutting out uber, there is this.....

http://qz.com/688003/ubers-self-driving-cars-are-on-the-road...

> His name and commentaries started popping up everywhere a few short years ago which to me smells strongly of having a PR agency

This is exactly right. One of the first things a16z did after it was founded was to hire Margit Wennmachers[0] and her PR firm [1].

Horowitz openly addresses the topic in his book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things[2]:

> “We hired the Outcast marketing agency, headed up by its formidable founder, Margit Wennmachers, to generate media interest. We needed people to know what we were about as we had decided to defy the conventional venture capital theory of no PR. The daughter of a German pig farmer, Margit was the furthest thing from a swine wrangler imaginable. Smart and sophisticated, she was the Babe Ruth of PR. She worked her contacts, landing a cover story in Fortune in 2009 that featured Marc posing as Uncle Sam. Andreessen Horowitz was an overnight sensation, and yet Marc and I were still the only two people in the firm.”

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margit_Wennmachers

1: http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/02/news/economy/ozy-silicon-val...

2: http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/00...

Contrary to what many people think, few of us have managers who can consistently and successfully lay out the optimal career path and help us achieve it. I'd say there are three main reasons:

1. It's really hard to do.

2. Few people have themselves been trained on management.

3. Faced with 1 and 2, people focus on their own, more familiar personal deliverables.

Therefore, if you want things to change, you'll probably have to make some specific suggestions. And to do that, you should do some homework. I highly recommend starting with Managing Humans by Michael Lopp (http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-Engi...) or maybe The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz (http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/00...). Spend an hour or two with each book and you'll have a better idea what can be done, and why.

What you're finding is that working as both a full-time manager and full-time engineer is very difficult, borderline impossible. Eventually, you'll have to choose. An increasing number of small companies are starting to understand this reality, and allow their top people to grow into either technical leadership or management leadership roles. Expecting both, simultaneously, is not realistic.

I really liked Ben Horowitz's "The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers" [1]

The book is not focused on failures, but it's full of really good advices on what to do when a company is moving into disaster.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Hard-Thing-About-Things/dp/0062273...