Super Pumped was a fast paced story that was full of insight to Uber’s growth! Details were precise and easy to follow!

Super Pumped was a fast paced story that was full of insight to Uber’s growth! Details were precise and easy to follow!   Read Less

Mike Isaac's Super Pumped on Uber is an overall good first effort from the NYT journalist, although it doesn't live up to the h...  Read More

Mike Isaac's Super Pumped on Uber is an overall good first effort from the NYT journalist, although it doesn't live up to the high watermark set by John Carreyrou's Bad Blood on Theranos.Super Pumped truly shines in its later chapters: Isaac's blow-by-blow coverage of Uber founder Travis Kalanick's ouster kept me on the edge of my seat, as did his description of the successor CEO selection process. Isaac is without a doubt a stellar reporter, having unearthed a number of details I did not know from previous coverage of the (in)famous Silicon Valley company. He is thorough with the scoops and maintains a consistent voice throughout.The things I liked less about Super Pumped could all be ascribed to the fact that Isaac struggles somewhat in making the transition from writing newspaper articles to writing a book. The beginning and ending chapters are linear, resulting in a smooth story. The middle chapters' timeline doesn't follow the same path, resulting in a more confusing narrative as there is a lot going on: Uber's growth in cities, outside the US, as well as its challenges. At times, Isaac is more concerned about highlighting how the journalistic scoop unfolded rather than zooming in on the actual story. Additionally, Isaac's providing a few sentences on background is perfectly acceptable for a newspaper article, but seems jumpy in a book. For instance, we've already been introduced to Plouffe (Uber's political strategist) in the prologue, no need to reiterate his resume in Chapter 12 - it's just an unnecessary break in the story.Other nits to pick: Isaac mentions that the term unicorn was coined in 2013 by a venture capitalist, but doesn't call out that venture capitalist’s name (Aileen Lee) - a bummer for a book where the treatment of women in tech is a prominent subject. Also, I occasionally scratched my head at the author's apparent obsession with people's height. Few of the characters escaped a comment on that topic, even when it seemed irrelevant to their story (with the exception of Bill Gurley, of course).I'm grateful for the read though, not least because it ends on what I think is an optimistic note. Isaac shows us glimpses of the seeds of redemption for Kalanick. I'm hopeful one day I'll read the book on that story too.     Read Less