I’m writing a book on Substack
It’s a paid newsletter that is actually a book.
TL;DR
Subscribe to Augment Nation to read Chapter 1 / Part 1. From there, a new section of the book will be sent each week.
I am finally hopping on the Substack bandwagon, but with a twist on the use case…
My students know that I have been talking about the eventual impact of augmented reality for years now. I’ve been developing new programs with Columbia Business School (this pilot went well), and in parallel, I’ve been chipping away at the outline of a book about it since at least 2018.
Typically the process of writing a book would involve getting a publishing deal, receiving an advance against future sales, writing a manuscript in secrecy, and then finally publishing years later, if at all.
Instead, I want to try something different: I am going to write in the open, in realtime, funded by readers.
Each week I will write a section of the book. Over time those sections will form chapters, and those chapters will constitute a book. I already have the basic framework for what to write, but this format also allows for me to incorporate current events when it makes sense.
This book costs $5/month ($1.25 per email) or if paid annually, only $2.50/month ($0.63 per email). Unlike a normal book, you are not only paying to read it, but you are supporting its very existence along the way.
The book is called Augment Nation: Moving Humanity to the Software Layer.
Whenever it is that you join the party, I recommend that you go back to the beginning and start at Chapter 1.
Below is a brief synopsis of what Augment Nation is all about; think of it like what would appear on the back cover.
The eventual mass adoption of augmented reality (AR) will have far-reaching implications that will impact multiple industries and all of human life.
While you might not realize it, this transition is already well under way. Think of all the things in your life that at one time were part of the physical world but are now software. This transformation has been happening for decades, piece by piece, and the mass adoption of smartphones accelerated it dramatically by giving billions of people around the world instant access to the Internet whenever they want.
AR will move that access from being an active activity (choosing to take your phone out, unlocking it, and then using it) to a passive activity (present all the time).
When I was working at Apple in 2006, the year before the iPhone was announced, no one knew that the world was about to experience a major paradigm shift. Even after its release, the ultimate impact that iPhone and other smartphones were going to have was not immediately obvious. That was 14 years ago. We are due for another such shift.
Rather than attempting to predict when and how AR will break out, or to debate whether it will or not (although you can imagine which side of that debate I’d fall on!), Augment Nation will aim to describe the world as it will be after mass adoption has already happened. It will read like fiction, painting a vivid picture of a future where advanced AR is as ubiquitous as smartphones are today.
Welcome to Augment Nation.
Check out the Table of Contents and start reading at Chapter 1 / Part 1 which is free. From there, subscribe to Augment Nation to read a new section of the book each week.
