Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I want to thank my collaborator, Matt Sheehan, who did a tremendous amount of work on this book under a very tight deadline. If you feel this book is fun and easy to read, or maybe find it rich in information, Matt deserves much of the credit. I was lucky to find a collaborator like Matt, someone with a deep understanding of China, the United States, technology, and writing.

I was talked into doing this book by my friend and agent John Brockman and his team. His belief in the urgency of the subject and my ability to uniquely contribute to the conversation first persuaded me to consider taking on this project. In hindsight, I think he was absolutely right.

I’d like to thank Rick Wolff, who decided to bet on an unproven topic based on my own conviction. He is an outstanding editor and worked wonders in bringing this book to market. It was tremendous fun working with Rick—and pushing each other to be the best we could be.

I also want to thank Erik Brynjolfsson, James Manyika, Jonathan Woetzel, Paul Triolo, Shaolan Hsueh, Chen Xu, Ma Xiaohong, Lin Qi-ling, Wu Zhuohao, Michael Chui, Yuan Li, Cathy Yang, Anita Huang, Maggie Tsai, and Laurie Erlam for helping to read early drafts and giving me valuable feedback.

Final thanks go to my family, who have tolerated my inattentiveness during the past six months. I cannot wait to return to their embrace, an embrace that sustains me and has taught me so much. This should be my last book for a while. Then again, I’ve told them that seven times before—hopefully they’ll still buy it.