I Wrote a Book !

I didn’t just write a book. I wrote, designed and laid out a book, worked out how to print it and put it up for sale. 

If you had told 18-year-old me that in [cough] a number of years, I would have written a book, I’d have been thoroughly confused and wouldn’t even have been able to comprehend the idea, let alone believe you.

Why?

For some time now, I’ve started to really worry about the future impact technology will have on the world. It doesn’t feel like it’s going well.. and it doesn’t feel like it’s getting better.

I wanted to do something about it. But what could I do? My personal efforts to convince and influence people that we should be worried about this seemed futile against waves and waves of dystopian technological advancements.

So I decided to write a book. Maybe a couple of people would read it, and it would have some multiplying factor to my own efforts. It took ages. But now it’s here.

What is it?

A few years ago, I did a fun speech for an internal company event. The talk linked the Punk cultural revolution of the mid-1970s to leadership in a tech company. It was meant as a bit of fun inspiration. 

However, the idea stuck with me. At first, it is a helpful analogy for forming teams to use a “keep this simple and maximise what you have available” mentality. The more I read and researched Punk history, the more remarkable stories I found that paralleled the leadership styles I believe in.

It ballooned from a collection of fun stories into a leadership model that will help technology leaders steer the societal disruption the technology we build causes toward good.

It’s a bit stupid. It’s funny in parts. It pushes the boundaries of the format for a ‘business’ book. But mostly, I think the message is essential. 

Is it any good?

I have ABSOLUTELY no idea. I’ve tried to do something different with this book. It has a slightly odd tone, a somewhat odd format, and an even odder pacing. It tells the reader to stop reading, go away, and get a refund in three places. It also has a choose your own adventure section in it. 

I chose to self-publish the book as I felt there was a terrifying pace of change in the tech industry that I wanted to get ahead of, but in doing this, I forwent the sanity check of a publisher. The only people who have read the book so far are those with a vested interest in being nice to me.

A small ask.

Writing a book and self-publishing is far from a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. I estimate that I’ve invested around 1000 hours, or 125 working days, on this book to get it to this point. 

For each book I sell via Amazon, I get €2 for the digital version and around €4 for the physical version. If I were to sell 50/50 digital and physical, I would need to sell 4000 copies to get to a point where I’ve earned minimum wage. 

If you’ve found any content I’ve been putting out on my blog or newsletter useful/entertaining/valuable, it’s time for me to cash in the favour. 

Here are a few ways you could help: 

1. Obviously, buy the book if you are interested. You can buy it from Amazon, or direct from me at https://punkleadership.com/. Amazon is a lot better at getting it to you quickly/cheaply, and buying from them might help my ranking there. Buying from me gives me more profit.
2. Share, like, and comment on this book announcement post.
3. View and share, like the little intro video I created for the book here or on YouTube.
4. Follow the LinkedIn Pagefor the book.

Thank You!