Best business leadership books according to redditors
We found 704 Reddit comments discussing the best business leadership books. We ranked the 321 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 704 Reddit comments discussing the best business leadership books. We ranked the 321 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Here's my list of the classics:
General Computing
Computer Science
Software Development
Case Studies
Employment
Language-Specific
C
Python
C#
C++
Java
Linux Shell Scripts
Web Development
Ruby and Rails
Assembly
Articles from reputable sources are a decent source of knowledge, but some quality business books will get you an infinitely better understanding of concepts. Here is my personal business book list if you want to get a "universal generalist" understanding of business:
I am graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce Honors degree in May and I can easily say that one of these books (average price ~25$) has significantly more content than most individual classes I have taken (~600$). However, keep in mind that business knowledge and business acumen are two entirely different things. Knowledge is easily obtainable through books like these, and acumen is the result of applied experience with decision making. In short, it is one thing to be book smart, but it is another to get out there and actually apply it. No one can give you that in the form of an article or book - you have to do that yourself.
edit: added links to amazon
This is a nightmare. After reading Peopleware (http://www.amazon.de/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Tom-DeMarco/dp/0321934113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421350607&sr=8-1&keywords=peopleware) you'd expect major players like Facebook and the likes have learned by now. But nooooo, let's continue to pretend a software company is a huge fabric where people sit in front of monitors instead of working the assembly line. What else could be different?
\ It is entirely possible that they just do this to show off to stakeholders, because those aren't impressed by a row of closed doors.
Apprenticeship Patterns is a good read for developing a positive attitude toward your work and career.
Becoming a Technical Leader isn't necessarily for people later in their careers. I gained a lot from reading it during my first internship.
Anil Dash's blog has some posts on important topics like diversity within the tech community.
What I've linked above help with the attitude side of 'soft skills', which I think is the most important part. The interpersonal skills come with time, practice, and being mindful of how your communication and behavior affect others.
Edit: Here's another post on how to be assertive and nice.
High Output Management, from former Intel CEO, Andy Grove.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Hell, I loved it so much I wrote an outline about it.
You can derive so much value from this, whether or not you are a manager.
There are multiple people, across the ideological spectrum.
Noam Chomsky
In that clip he is critiquing Slavoj Zizek's postmodernism (who himself in another clip is saying postmodernism is a form of totalitarianism by the way).
Here is an older one of Chomsky as well.
The most coherent I've ever read is the one by David Deutsch, in his great book The Beginning of Infinity. I would even go so far as to say that his critique is stronger than Jordan Petersons.
Then of course there is Stephen Hicks.
There are also many critiques which closely related to it, which is critique of "Critical theory" and "cultural marxism", which is closely related to it, especially in the universities.
I myself discovered postmodernism at the root of a cluster of very strange things in our culture long before I discovered JP, by simply having an ideological girlfriend and trying to get to the bottom of how her beliefs hang together.
What I discovered with her, and why I think it is also so important what JP is doing with labeling it and telling people what they're up against, is that she never used the word postmodernism herself. I don't even think she knew what it was. This was certainly not her identity label (Although she did talk about intersectionality). But every single of the big ideas she had formed the totality of postmodernism (conventionalism, relativism, social constructionism, that everything is power and groups battle for power, etc.).
Does the fact that she did not identify as a postmodernist make any difference to her acting out that ideology? No, not at all. If anything it just makes it harder to spot. It's in some way easier to fight marxism when everyone who shares that ideology identify themselves as marxists. While people can front radical postmodernist ideas in companies without being spotted because the spread of the ideology has not yet reached public awareness.
there is an excellent book called peopleware that goes into lots of management fads, check it out, you might just like it.
Please understand, all three are generally speaking fairly senior roles.
A Project Manager (obviously) manages projects.
Most PMs have a background in business or a technology area that they were good at, but discovered and got really good at managing projects.
An IT PM needs to know a little bit about damned near all technology areas - just enough to know when they need to bring in another resource.
An IT PM needs to know when they are being lied to. The business sets due-dates, and the PM needs to organize resources to meet those dates. Some resources don't want to give accurate or realistic estimates on how long their components will take, which has a snowball effect on project components that depend on that component...
Above all else, a PM must have excellent communication & organizational skills.
Formal Project Management is practically a religion, and this is their holy text: PMBOK
More info here: http://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp
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A Technical Consultant is a specialist with significant experience & expertise in a given technology area. They know how a particular widget works, and how most businesses tend to use and integrate said widget into an organization. The deeper the history of knowledge and longer the track record of successful projects, the more a consultant tends to be paid.
A consultant will usually be brought in as a resource to be managed by a Project Manager.
The consultant has answers to questions and design or implementation recommendations that will be used by the incumbant technology teams to integrate the widget into their company.
Sometimes a company will engage a consultant and pay them to do everything. You are the expert - just make the widget work, and tell us when you are done. This is a clear indication of a terrible company, with piss-poor management. How will you keep the widget working if you don't know how it works, or how it was implemented in the first place?
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A Solution Architect is a Technical Consultant who has expertise in not just a specific widget, but the entire technology area and/or business operation that will use the widget. They can design or modify your business or technology department or infrastructure to best use a new widget.
These are among the most senior of technologists.
-----
Question for you:
What happened for you when you went to Google and searched for "wiki project manager" or "wiki technical consultant" or "wiki solution architect" ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_manager
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology_consulting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_architect
The reason I ask the question is that nearly all IT staff members are paid to solve problems of one sort or another.
Learning something new is just another problem to solve.
If you hope to succeed and excel in this career, you really need to improve your ability to answer questions of this level on your own.
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
The Mythical Man-Month
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming
Also don't forget about Astroball, releasing in July.
Here are a few that I've found useful relating to teamwork, management, and/or general career shit:
You will pick up the knowledge fairly quickly, but the wisdom part comes slowly.
Read some books:
Start humble, stay humble, be quick to listen and slow to speak, and don't make changes on Friday!
this is a MUST READ before you begin.
https://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667
also, another suggestion would be a site with a live global map.
two maps actually.
one map shows the countries that are priced out of using crypto due to bitcoin fees.
The other shows the countries that CAN use bitcoin cash.
because everyone thinks their team problems are unique and really they're all just stale memes.
if you read this you'll be able to perfectly line up all the shitheads in your department with the book characters
Have not read it, but I hear lots of good things about Astroball
Depending on how much project management you do vs. personnel management, there is Cracking the PM Interview by the same author (though possibly ghostwritten).
General personnel management probably involves more general management interview questions, for which I'm sure a million books have been written (though I don't know enough about them to recommend a specific one).
Edit: If you haven't already, though, read Peopleware. If more shops were run like they suggest, the world would be a better place.
On Picard there’s this book https://www.amazon.com/Make-So-Leadership-Lessons-Generation/dp/0671520989
This is a great resource: https://www.oneweekpm.com. This course is a great place to start.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Product Management ( great blog ):
Books to read after the course: https://yilunzh.com/pm/
INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love: https://www.amazon.com/INSPIRED-Create-Tech-Products-Customers-ebook/dp/B077NRB36N
The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874
Shipping Greatness: Practical lessons on building and launching outstanding software, learned on the job at Google and Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shipping-Greatness-Practical-launching-outstanding/dp/1449336574
Hope this guides help.
I made a list based on where you can purchase them if you want to edit it onto your post:
This Month's Book
January:
by Iain Banks]
(https://www.amazon.com/Consider-Phlebas-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/031600538X)
by Aldous Huxley]
(https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060850523)
by Ray Bradbury
by Oscar Wilde
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
by Jordan B. Peterson]
(https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/B0797Y87JC)
February:
by Richard Matheson
by Frank Herbert
by Haruki Murakami
by Bret Easton Ellis
by Max Tegmark
by Friedrich Nietzsche
March:
by Ernest Hemingway
by Herman Melville
April:
(https://www.amazon.com/Dice-Man-Luke-Rhinehart/dp/0879518642)
https://www.amazon.com/Stoner-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590171993)
(https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishment-Fyodor-Dostoyevsky/dp/0486415872)
https://www.amazon.com/No-Longer-Human-Osamu-Dazai/dp/0811204812)
May:
https://www.amazon.com/Spring-Snow-Sea-Fertility-1/dp/0679722416)
(https://www.amazon.com/Runaway-Horses-Sea-Fertility-2/dp/0679722408)
November
Books Pewds suggested but hasn't talked about in any of the episodes yet:
linking pewds to see this u/pewpewpewPEWdie
You're neglecting it for some reason, but these look a lot like self improvement ideas plus chores, which I know I don't like to process. They require taking action about yourself, which can be hard.
Peter Drucker has a great point about effective decisions - they must include an action, or they are not decisions at all.
Also at 7 things a day, with 100 things until you clear it out - that means you only clear out your inbox every 2 weeks, which sounds like you're not doing the weekly review!
Here are some tips I can give you, based on your example inbox items:
The GTD podcast has a guided weekly review which can be helpful if you're struggling to do them as well.
Awesome!!! I'd love to meet Tony personally one day too. He's a big deal and really humble for what I've seen/read. Congratulations again for being part of such a great company! Thank you very much for taking the time to read and reply my questions!
About question 2, I was referring to this book. It's in Zappos' library, so you can borrow it anytime. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Basically, someone in Stage 3 thinks "I'm great, you suck", and someone in Stage 4 thinks "We're great, they (the competitors) suck". Someone in stage 3 is cocky, smart-ass and treats everyone else as if they were inferior to him. They also don't see the importance in Core Value #10 :). Is there anyone in Zappos you've seen behaving this way?
Have a great life! :D
Funny story: I've only been around since Mag5, and Nick started at Mag4.
Magfest #1 was started by a guy named Joe Yamine. It was SUPPOSED to be an anime con named (definitely butchering the spelling) OMAKEACON, but they happenned to book the Minibosses, and the rest is history.
After Mag1, Joe (smartly) had enough and was prepared to call it done. Brendan Becker, who was an attendee, grabbed a chunk of money and Eli Courtwright, and would not let it die. Magfest 2 through approximately 9 were run by Brendan, Eli is still with us to this day.
I attended Magfest 5 after (bizzarely) submitting a patch to the linux kernel (in xpad.c) that fixed Dance Dance REvolution controllers, and telling authors of DDR clones that it was fixed. One of these people was Brendan and that's how I found out about Magfest.
At Mag5 I put out my keyboard in the hallway and left it there, finding people jamming out on it in my absence. At Mag6, Paul Good, who was also running stuff, threw a room at me which we called Jamspace. At Mag7 I was thrown headfirst into music, by Mag9 I had taken on other duties, and at Mag10 when Brendan had to step back, I ended up being the current Sucker In Charge Of Things, which I still do to this day.
----------
My best advice for starting up new organizations is, PRACTICE. Use anything as an excuse to practice, build your crew. There are forgiving venues like colleges/etc that will give you money to run cool stuff for their students, or bars that would be willing to let you rent the place on an otherwise dead night.
Start small and do it really well. Don't run any bad events, make sure all your attendees and staff walk away thinking it was the best thing ever. Learn lessons incrementally, and then when you have a good grip on the flow and basics, move onto getting crazier. If you ever want to do something in a venue, always start with a hotel (which you can negotiate with, trading hotel room sales for meeting space), and NEVER START IN A CONVENTION CENTER (they are so expensive and out to screw you, especially if you're small).
Starting a non-profit is pretty involved (our process took nearly 2 years, though we're more complicated than most), if you can, maybe try and get involved with an existing one, or look into something called fiscal sponsorship. My advice for starters is to ignore that stuff for now, and just focus on doing some good events. The first few will probably only barely break even, so you don't need to worry about being exempt from taxes or whatever. Just make sure money in > money out, if only by $1.
Find allies. Let them do cool stuff with you and get out of their way.
I like this book here, been re-reading it lately, it maps pretty well to the Magfest organization: http://www.amazon.com/Tribal-Leadership-Leveraging-Thriving-Organization/dp/0061251321 might help you in your travels.
Good luck! The most important thing is persistence, just keep doing it and building that momentum, there's no shortcut.
Here is why open office plans became a thing: Money. Employee space is rated on certain amount of sq/ft per employee. If I rent a 1,000 sq/ft office space for open office plans each employee only gets about 30 sq/ft. With cubicles that jumps up to 50-60sq/ft an employee. Offices are about 110 sq/ft.
Looking purely at the cost which route do you think a company is going to go?
This is actually a good book on how people work and offices should be organized: Peopleware
> What does you ideal office space look like?
An office with a door. Doesn't need to be a big one but I need to be able to shut the door when I am on meetings or working on things.
> Do you have an idea of a better layout?
Interesting that I was never required to read any of these books while in college. Luckily, I have read 5 of the 12 on my own time and they have definitely helped me in my professional development - Refactoring, Clean Code and Design Patterns in particular. I also highly recommend Peopleware and reading other people's code on Github or elsewhere, particularly if you are learning a new language.
Thank shitty hiring practices that fail to do audition style interviews, where you have the applicant run through a set of tasks common to/representative of the job, using a non-production environment/machine.
That way you, and preferably a few people who do the applicant's job, can see their capabilities, not hear what they say they can do or rote facts they can recall on memory.
Every IT manager should read Peopleware and apply its principles wherever possible in their organization. Sadly, most companies lack leadership of that quality.
If you google "sweep the shed" it comes up with hundreds of articles about the ABs. It's even in the the blurb of this book.
>Champions do extra.
>They sweep the sheds.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Legacy-James-Kerr/dp/147210353X
Say no more, fam.
You don't need a degree to run a business. Having your own business allows you to experiment with these books first hand instead of taking some professor's word for it. Professor's usually just read what the book says. If they were actually good at running a business they'd probably be doing that.
I also recommend the book Peopleware
Depends what you want to learn. Some of my favorites are
This a good list to get you started :) most of my favorite books are not language specific.
> I’m still waiting for an actual documentary that catalogues the Astros’ going from the Lastros to World Series champs. The entire story is an emotional ride with lows and highs.
That already exists, and it's fantastic, but it's a book.
You know those business leadership guides on behavior and such? Like for example having nice leader/tough Second in Command (or vice versa)? They actually work quite well to resolving issues before they even begin. Most of them you can get out of the 5 dysfunctions of a team.
The anime club I ran at my community college avoided a ton of drama for a quite a while even after I left because I tried to solve problems or issues before they even occurred. Unfortunately I do hear it's now a drama llama mostly because they undid all the rules and procedures I put in place years ago. Thinking and planning ahead as much as possible helps immensely. I also suggest having mechanisms/rules in place to stop one singular person from controlling the entire anime club and that includes the president/leader.
the lean product playbook is excellent, (no this is not an affiliate link, nor am I the author) https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549985813&sr=8-1&keywords=lean+product+playbook
This was an All Blacks policy brought in after the 2007 world cup QF loss to the French. James Kerr wrote about it in his book "Legacy" which has become pretty popular with sports management types.
> "the point of the policy is to wean out inflated egos and make everything about the team, with his central belief being you can’t 'be a positive person on the field and a prick off it'."
https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/all-blacks-no-dickheads-allowed/
David Deutsch in The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World calls this range feature reach. A very good theory is so precise that it has can reach far. We don't know what the reach is until we walk the 1000 miles, but the reach was already there. He seems to use reach to describe both the variety of the phenomena and the amount of phenomena (from small scales to galactic scales).
I have not even half the experience you have, but I can second this based on what I've seen and been guilty of myself. Bizarrely, developers have the analytic skills to understand psychology and business/economic issues, but often are too dazzled by the coding challenge to apply them. Also, programming has a strange reinforcing effect, where years of bashing away figuring out how to make things work reinforces your own ego, and without a reality check now and again you may end up convincing yourself you're the smartest person on earth. (I found the first 3 years or so of programming convinced me I was the most stupid person on earth, but that did reverse at some point.)
From what I've seen, developers don't necessarily stay like this. Most, with age and experience, start to see the bigger picture and make decisions based on the broader goals of a project. And having your fingers burnt needlessly reimplementing core libraries does eventually teach you why people share code in the first place. Having many young/inexperienced developers on a project is a big risk though, as chance of getting lost on a tangent is much higher.
I wish Peopleware was more widely read, that really opened my eyes to the issue of psychology in software.
Peopleware has an entire chapter on this, as I recall. Great book.
If you are interested in Scrum, I'd recommend reading Software in 30 days and/or Scrum, the art of doing twice the work in half the time or at the very least, read the Scrum Guide. For agile in a larger sense, there are plenty of good books, like The Art of Agile Development or Agile with GUTS
If you're the type of person who hates books about management babble, then you're just like me. Having said that, I did get a lot out of this one book. It's a great book for helping with team building, and it covers OP's exact topic as one of the major points.
https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
> How to discuss and compromise on decisions in a team
So, this is going to be super non-specific to TTRPGs/design work, but I cannot recommend reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team enough.
A TLDR for one of the major points of the book:
Reasonable adults don't always need to get their way but they do need to feel as if their concerns and beliefs have been listened to, considered, and addressed. This requires both trust and a team commitment to actually getting into productive conflict over contentious ideas or solutions. Without these, you're always going to have a hard time with decisions and getting the team to commit properly to them.
There is, unfortunately, no magic way to get to this point. You have to work together and build these relationships and behaviors. If you know a silver bullet, I'm all ears.
Hi skunk,
Since everyone is remaining quiet I might as well give this a shot. I'm from a technical background but currently studying PM in my spare time in the hope that I can progress in this direction within my industry.
PMP
It seems like the global standard is the PMP with PMI which requires:
> A secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree, or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.
> OR
> A four-year degree (bachelor’s degree or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.
I'm currently studying towards this. I've taken recommendations from this subreddit (and /r/pmp) and bought:
and
In order to obtain the required 35 contact hours, I bought one of several cheap Groupons for $99. I'm not going to link the course because I don't necessarily recommend it - it should be easy enough to find and people have linked to these in previous posts. It doesn't really matter anyway because it's just so I can "tick that box", as I've learnt everything I need to know from the books.
The exam however will have to be sat in person. I have yet to do this so can't give you any pointers.
CAPM
If you don't match the above criteria, you can always opt for the lower qualification of CAPM (also with PMI) and work your way up.
For this I reccommend CAPM/PMP Project Management Certification, Third Edition and the previously mentioned online course.
Please note that you can potentially pitch anything as a project in the right light, even washing the dishes. Aim high and try to get the hours for PMP if possible.
PRINCE2 & SIX SIGMA
What else? Well, if I'm successful with the PMP and still enjoy PM after the blood, sweat and tears, I'm looking at these two qualifications.
I've already added a few books to my Amazon wishlist but have yet to seriously look into these with enough detail to commit.
I know that the exam for the PRINCE2 foundation level (and possibly practitioner level?) can be sat online with a webcam.
Six Sigma I know very little about except that several colleagues have mentioned it and my industry takes it seriously. However, I don't believe you can do these Six Sigma "belts" online.
Sorry for the serious wall of text but I just thought I'd share everything I know about PM accreditation. This isn't a comprehensive list but I'm planning on doing 90% online so I'm in a similar situation to yourself.
I would be grateful for any feedback myself from experienced PMs on my plans going forward.
I read it in this book. Obviously it was historical conjecture but the author's arguments were very well supported and I was convinced. It's a good read too, I highly recommend it for people who like history and/or psychology.
On Amazon, A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness.
> This New York Times bestseller is a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful connections between mental illness and leadership. Historians have long puzzled over the apparent mental instability of great and terrible leaders alike: Napoleon, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, and others. In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Programme at Tufts Medical Center, offers and sets forth a controversial, compelling thesis: the very qualities that mark those with mood disorders also make for the best leaders in times of crisis. From the importance of Lincoln's "depressive realism" to the lacklustre leadership of exceedingly sane men as Neville Chamberlain, A First-Rate Madness overturns many of our most cherished perceptions about greatness and the mind.
I read this a few years back and thought it was good.
These books are more theoretical and about self growth as a well-rounded designer, if you want game theory others listed some great ones like Rules of Play and Book of Lenses. That said, here's my list:
It's more of a broad game design book since it talks about all the pipelines / processes of all departments coming together, with an emphasis on scripting / level design for crafting experiences. Portion of the book uses Unreal Engine 2 as a reference, but you can probably use UE4 or something else to follow along the actual game design lessons he's teaching and not have the take away be a technical tutorial.
I cannot describe how invaluable this book is, if you're only to get one from the list it'd be this one. While it does covers Pixar's history as a frame of reference for a lot of stuff, it's also more importantly about their ideology for fostering creativity, productivity and work/ life balance -- all of which are important and can be applied to Game Design.
I read this one after Gabe Newell recommended it one of his interviews and it was at a time in my career when I was working at a AAA studio struggling with the corporate forces that got in the way of creativity / productivity. It was one of those that changed me as a developer. It's more from a management point of view, but seriously applicable if you are collaborating with other people in game development, either on the same level as you or those who rely on your work to do theirs. Or if you are going to work at studio, AAA or indie, it's also an insightful book to evaluate whether the culture cultivated by management is in your best interest so that you have the tools to do your best work without burning out.
This one is like Peopleware but not as exhaustive, it's an easier read since it's a compilation and edit of blog posts the authors wrote on their old website 37signals. It's more or less about getting stuff done and filtering out noise, simplifying things to make results better -- this one is relatable for planning game project milestones. A lot of it will sound like common sense that a lot of people may say they already know, but it's surprising how many don't actually practice it.
Scrum is a form of Agile.
Having a team come in to teach Scrum is ok. I did that once. However, I got a lot more out of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X
And remember to tell all the people who work for you that
>"If you haven't got a hernia yet, you ain't pulling your share."
>--George Steinbrenner, owner, New York Yankees
edit: I've got another one for you, from the guy who said "love the janitor".
>"workers have unlimited juice to squeeze".
>--Jack Welch, former CEO of GE
and the first one on the list is also known for
>“fear is the best motivator"
>--Andy Grove, from his 1984 book, "High Output Management"
How to be part of a team and lead a team.
There's one book to read - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
I read this book, and it opened up my eyes. Working as part of a team is THE most valuable thing I've learned.
Aside from being a team of high performing players, they are a great team in the way they operate. For example, Richie McCaw (arguably one of the greatest Rugby players of all time) started a tradition where the senior leadership of the team clean up the changing sheds after each game. On flights they will often let others go first and spend time helping people.
A lot of this was all developed as the leadership at NZ Rugby spent years researching top performing sports teams, including extensive sessions with the San Antonio Spurs, New England Patriots, Manchester City FC among others. The impact of this learning resulted in Roy Keane (former Manchester United captain) spending time with the All Blacks as part of earning his UEFA Pro License (for coaching)
A great read of how they operate is Legacy by Michael Kerr. Whilst there are things that all professional sports have unique, the thing that needs to be considered is that the All Blacks are similar to the Hockey Canada and their mens team - where they can pick the best players from NZ to play.
Just be careful, it's easy to fall down the rabbit hole of 'thinking you're being productive' but working ON things instead of "In" things. (Meta-procrastination is reading a book about getting organized instead of getting organized.) You should strive to have the simplest, most boring system that actually works for you. It's very easy to get caught up in the trap of researching the latest and greatest fad rather than actually doing the hard tasks that need to be done.
The 'classic' is "How to take control of your time and your life" by Lakein. This is the most generic, 1970s version of time management possible, but is helpful to understand as it is kind of 'responded to' by multiple other authors, even if they don't call him out by name.
Another frequently referenced work is "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Covey. This gets mentioned in a lot of places. It is a 'top down' style.
For a completely different perspective, try "Getting Things Done" by Allen. This will lead you to realize how many commitments that you have made. It is more 'bottom up'.
Finally, some of the most interesting stuff in this space that I have read is by Mark Forster. His latest book is here. And his blog is here.
At a high level, it is always useful to think about the utility of what you are doing - that is, making sure you are doing the right things, even if you are doing them slowly (working on your most important tasks), rather than doing low value tasks efficiently (man, I can read email quickly). Peter Drucker, Tim Ferriss (Four Hour Workweek), etc.
Other ideas/Books to research: JIT/Kanban, 80/20 'rule', "Eat that frog" by Brian Tracy. Smarter Faster Better by Duhigg, The Power of Habit also by Duhigg I also very much enjoyed. The Magic of Tidying up by Kondo might also give you some insight into cleaning out your commitments.
Hope this helps. I have read all of these so let me know if you have questions I guess...
Write down every single action you do due the day for 1 month. After 1 month review them and
Sort them by
Repaet that process after 3-6 months...
You find more detailed information in the book from peter drucker;
https://www.amazon.de/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459
Having been through something like this, I can share my perspective on what makes the difference. Apologies if the second person imperative tense is a bit too much, but it feels right.
Since you don't really have any direct control over what other people think, thinking and ruminating about it becomes a hobby that doesn't actually provide any reward or positive value. Recognize that thinking about how identity groups behave isn't particularly helpful or productive at any level whatsoever, and explore other pursuits! Essentially, try to "change the subject" of what's occupying your mindspace and time by deliberate choice.
So, focus on building, creating, exploring, achieving, helping, contributing, imagining. Find good-hearted and interesting people and befriend them. Pursue hobbies, read, self-educate, go on a hike, join a running club, find people who want to learn to play piano with you. Decide on and pursue a career, think strategically, try to figure out how to have your ducks in a row.
I'm mainly talking about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is really the only technique that has demonstrated consistent results. One doesn't even need a therapist to use it; just keep track of what you're thinking about hour to hour, and every time you're drifting into rumination about wasted time, pinch yourself and think about your plans for your future.
I know it's not always easy to do. Some apps might help. But we're neuroplastic and malleable creatures, and we get better at what we practice. So the main goal is to start practicing other things -- be deliberate about "changing the subject" you're devoting mental energy to.
Hope this helps!
>Problems arising in development for which we have trouble finding or creating a good solution. This may take a few extra hours but in some cases it has taken days to figure some things out, and this is time that is 'unaccounted for' because these tasks have specific hours/points assigned to them.
This is an issue with planning. Things can and do happen, but if they are happening frequently you have an issue with planning.
One thing you can try to do is assign a 'champion' to each ticket during the first discussion. (backlog grooming usually) The champion is responsible for gathering all the needed information and essentially the go-to person for understanding what needs to be completed and all of the dependencies. This person should also work with product to break an epic or story into the appropriate scope and subtasks. If a problem does arise, this is the person responsible for working with relevant stake holders to come up with a potential solution to take to the group.
>Time spent going back and fixing previously-completed components when new components break them. Our app is comprised of many components that work off of each other and sometimes changes to one either break another one or require some further changes to other ones to prevent breakage.
This is another planning issue. if you have to frequently go back and fix stuff that was completed then you didn't accurately capture the dependencies. (or someone else released something without checking your dependencies. still an issue with planning, just maybe not yours)
This is harder to fix. a champion can alleviate this to a degree, but it depends on the nature of the dependency. either way, not enough communication is going on.
>From the UI side, going back and fixing/updating/improving components that were functionally in a completed state. This one doesn't take up much time, but it is still not 'tasked' time.
Then task it. you should be capturing as much of your work on paper as possible.
if UI is outside of your team, it should be accounted for as a dependency the team is responsible for.
Again, not enough communication is going on. UI people should be part of your planning and you should be accounting for this time.
>The biggest problem comes when we have to make changes to multiple components simultaneously because they share functionality or work together, and this appears to cause a delay because 'neither of them are being completed on schedule'.
guess what I'm going to say. :p
sounds like you need to work with your SM to re-establish communication chains. they aren't there.
>We are all talented developers and we know what we are doing, but the seemingly 'results-driven' approach of SCRUM is not making a lot of sense to us right now, and morale is low.
your SM doesn't know what he's doing, sadly. Sounds like a converted PM that hasn't crested the learning curve yet. It sucks that Morale is low. You can do things to help him out and keep morale high. unfortunately this also depends on his willingness to accept the fact he doesn't know what he's doing.
You should really sit down with your SM and talk to him about this. It's his job to remove impediments. low morale is an impediment. how do your retro's go?
One of my favorite stories to tell, is one of the first retro's I was observing. (normally only the team should be present, but we made an exception for training purposes. I was there to observe, not to add) The company I was at was in the middle of a transition to Agile. They weren't prepared to hire dedicated SMs, so we were training within and having volunteers be SMs on teams temporarily.
Anyway, during the course of the retro, the team talked about how the current SM was not meshing well with the team, and wasn't really embodying Agile/Scrum as everyone else understood it. They decided in the Retro that the SM wasn't right for the team, and they needed a new one. So that's what they did, switched SMs right in the middle of the retro.
>Sometimes unexpected and time-consuming shit happens, and tasks cannot be completed 100% in one sitting. It just doesn't make sense to me. Can someone please explain how to handle these scenarios?
This largely depends on the group and the environment. if things are changing as frequently as you say, and they always will, then you should explore other models than Scrum. Specifically lean/kanban is better suited to volatile environments.
Within Scrum, when an event occurs that drastically changes the scope of a sprint you're supposed to bust the sprint. This is, by design, a painful process. you should immediately go into retrospective. talk about what went wrong. go into planning and re-establish baseline. figure out what the team can get done with this new information and restart the iteration.
Again, this is painful by design because it is a last resort. if these events happen frequently, then there's something else going on that needs to be addressed and talked about. mostly because you lose two days every time you bust a sprint. it paints a giant target on you that screams 'we didn't have our crap together. so now we have to go back and get our crap together' and no-one likes that. This is the main mechanism used to 'force' a team to fix their problems. granted, most SMs and most companies don't bust sprints even when things are going very poorly. but this is what scrum has in place for what you described. (so start doing it.)
In reality, Scrum tries to prevent these scenarios by enforcing better habits around planning and commitments. if you're new to scrum, or don't understand it yet, this can be extremely chaotic as Scrum assumes you have certain things already worked out. Scrum training generally does a woefully inadequate job of explaining this. the point is to highlight your main problem areas so you can fix them.
It's doing that very well. you've identified your time sinks. have some problems. Scrum's job is done. now it's your turn. talk about the issues as a team and figure out a solution based on the context of your environment (team/project/company/organization).
-------------
Recommended reading:
Phoenix Project: https://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Project-DevOps-Helping-Business/dp/0988262509
Crucial Conversations: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-Second/dp/0071771328/
Lean from the Trenches: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Trenches-Managing-Large-Scale-Projects/dp/1934356859/
When you're ready for something more advanced:
Tribal Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Tribal-Leadership-Leveraging-Thriving-Organization/dp/0061251321/
Toyota Production System: https://www.amazon.com/Toyota-Production-System-Beyond-Large-Scale/dp/0915299143/
Lean Software Development: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Software-Development-Agile-Toolkit/dp/0321150783/
Note: This last book is 'advanced' mostly because of price. It's worth it.
https://www.amazon.com/First-Rate-Madness-Uncovering-Between-Leadership/dp/0143121332
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch radically changed the way I think about many things. It's one of the few books I've read twice (ten years apart). The physics part was interesting, but it's the philosophy of it that affected me.
Another book of his, The Beginning of Infinity, had quite an effect on me as well, especially the idea that all solutions have their problems, and that instead of regressing, we should push forward to find solutions to the new problems.
In realtà non mi ricordo esattamente se la citazione viene da The Mythical Man-Month o se da Peopleware, li ho letti praticamente uno dietro l’altro. Se non li conosci, consiglio vivamente.
Non discuto che il “mitico mese-uomo” sia moneta corrente, il discorso è che sappiamo da anni che è una moneta rozza e inaffidabile, e quindi va presa con pinze molto lunghe.
I haven't read either of these books so I can't vouch for them personally, but my understanding is that Peopleware and Mythical Man Month are classics.
https://www.amazon.com/Thick-Face-Black-Heart-Philosophy/dp/0446670200
To summarize, it's Astroball, that's our rebuild process because we have the people in place to properly execute it.
That being said, we're at the foot of the mountain. In my perspective, it's a good time to be a fan, because you get to watch all these guys grow and progress.
On a bitter note, does anyone want to buy an authentic White O's Jersey with "Broxton" on it? ugh
Make It So by Wess Roberts and Bill Ross. It's based on the idea of management used by Picard in TNG: surround yourself with the best people you can find, take their advice seriously, and enable them to do their jobs with confidence.
Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671520989/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_lFs5ybXYRD51M
Picard says it all the time.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671520989/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_KHovyb29262P2
Star Trek: Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Leadership-Lessons-Generation/dp/0671520989
na re - reading this now - https://www.amazon.in/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884
THIS BOOK needs to be studied.
quite possibly the best management book by the best tech manager EVER
I read a book about good leadership and their CEO was talked about in it. I would quote it, but I gave the book to my little brother in hopes he would glean some good info from it.
Here is it for anyone wondering the book!
The Foundation Bible of starting an MSP: Managed Services in a Month by Karl Palachuk Amazon Link
I'll also throw a vote in for Traction as a general business book.
And my personal people/team management bible that I bring into every company I work with: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Amazon Link
This is my favorite book on team building. http://www.amazon.com/The-Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership/dp/0787960756
It contains some great lessons about how to address these issues, as they are generally indicative of deeper problems w/in the organization, rather than just with the meetings themselves.
I've read about 50-60 books on marketing and I can boil down everything you need to know about marketing in these two articles and one book:
I recently read the (old) book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and it provides an interesting lens in which to view this landscape.
First of all, there is a lot of emphasis on being first in a market. Soylent is obviously the perfect example of this. They were first, and in many ways this is more valuable in a business sense than other measures of product quality. Soylent, you could say, has become the "Kleenex" of powdered foods - its name is synonymous with the category. Really, it has done what all new businesses would love to do - invent its own category in which to be first, a category with enormous growth potential and no competition. Soylent is the first powdered food, not the newest alternative to Ensure.
Many would-be competitors have sprung up, attempting to be Soylent, with little differentiating them other than availability outside the US (or even availability inside the US, for that matter!). However, one in particular has distinguished itself as a worthy competitor, in a business sense: Joylent.
Instead of trying to copy Soylent exactly, Joylent does an excellent job of positioning itself as "just like Soylent, but opposite" - with flavors in response to Soylent's monolithic blandness, with irreverence and humor in response to Soylent's sterile, clinical seriousness, but with, at the core, a product that is almost indistinguishable in how it is intended to be used and what it means to provide. This is an excellent strategy for reaching a sustainable second place in response to an overwhelming number one - it is Pepsi's response to the dominance of Coca-Cola, for example. And number two in a growing market with unlimited potential is not a bad place to be. Especially if number one happens to stumble somewhere along the way.
For the rest, and I would argue that means everyone other than Soylent or Joylent, the strategy that remains is for each to grab a unique point of differentiation, each with its own niche that it can be identified and known for. To chase after Soylent and Joylent at this point would be foolish. Instead, we can choose one word or concept to own and excel in. For example, who will own the word ketosis? I would argue that a clear winner has not yet emerged here. Or weight-loss? Or even taste or flavor? (Or, dare I say it, cheap?)
Or for an obvious example, it seems that my own Custom Body Fuel owns the word custom within this reddit community, but to be honest I'm not convinced that it is as valuable a word to own at this point as it may seem from the outside. The subset of people who really need customization is a very small subset of an already small niche market, and the operational infrastructure needed to address this niche at scale is still beyond my grasp.
The holy grail, of course, would be to create yet another new category within and yet beyond "powdered foods" in some sense, in which to be the first and best, like Soylent. I don't know yet what that may be (it may be many things) or whether anyone here will come upon it, but it's worth thinking about.
Disclaimer : i'm not a recruiter, so my opinion is just that :)
Here are my reactions while reading your resume :
If you want to shine, that's a thing, but don't crap on others.
"Without direction", "the architects didn't know how to do that but i
did", "1980 Fortran era" etc.
I would rephrase those with only positive things. You did good things, that's all there is.
I see that you made a presentation for all of your team, that's cool. And you helped recruit, also cool. That should be more emphasized, and you need to show more of that.
Now that the project is defunct, you should put your sources on github and add the link in your resume.
You listed C# as a language you own, and yet you put it in the "i want to learn these" section as well.
BTW i like this section, it's a good idea. Add a link to a github account with your fiddlings in these languages / frameworks and that's a winner.
I guess I'm old, but Gerald Weinberg was a huge influence on my development as a programmer and an analyst.
The Psychology of Computer Programming, written in 1971, is still relevant today, even if the coding examples are ancient.
Becoming a Technical Leader was a huge influence on my personal development.
Finally,the Quality Software Management 4 book series belongs in every manager's and developer's library.
Radical Candor is good. Extreme Ownership also. I had an old CEO recommend Wooden, by John Wooden, but I didn't get a ton out of it at the time.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0932633021/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1 Becoming a Technical Leader came highly recommended to me, but I haven't gotten into it yet.
Gotcha. That really sucks, and I mean that in the most meaningful way possible haha.
That type of thinking is the complete opposite of "agile" development, where typically there is a budget, but product owners and devs work together, iteration-by-iteration to determine what needs to change. If an "estimate" is carved in stone, then it's not an estimate anymore, but a fixed-bid project--again, the complete opposite of what developing with agility is supposed to be.
Sounds like a good starting place is learning about lean development and building a minimum viable product, since they're so sensitive about estimate granularity. That manager will have to learn to lead building a very minimum viable product, with as minimally necessary a valuable feature set as possible.
I recommend reading:
>How is a comfort zone established over a period of time
Your subconscious gets used to the normal activities of your life
>why do we find it so mentally tough to step out of it, despite our understanding that in the long run, it will help us feel better.
Your subconscious has evolved to protect you from threats. Basically anything it's not already familiar with is considered a threat.This includes physical things as well as psychological things and social things.
So the "mentally tough" part is your own subconsciousness trying to protect you. In order to overcome this you need to prove to your subconscious that its ok and you are still safe afterwards.
If you're interested, check out Immunity to Change It's from a Harvard professor who studies the subject.
As mentioned about Carnegie is a must. Otherwise I'd recommend King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, Staying Healthy with the Seasons (some of the nutrition info is out dated but the core of the book is still great), The Book of Five Rings.
Links:
If you're serious about a PM career, you'll probably want to pursue the PMP credential, which requires (from the PMI site):
I know this will sound like something you may have tried, but I'd consider taking
Taking friendship beyond social activities? It's hard. It's really hard - and it only gets harder as you get older.
But it's massively possible - and you should try, because it's important.
Since you're highly educated (compared to some), perhaps consider reading up on this area. It's not as crazy as it might sound - psychology and social situations (as much as they're really hard to understand) are pretty well documented, and with some thought and effort, you can massively improve various bits of social skills (it may be hard to introspect and work out what to improve, but perhaps just say "everything" and keep working at it?)
It's not really exactly what you want, but I do recommend reading this book because whilst it may sound irrelevant (and lame?) it's really awesome at helping you understand things like this.
I think I'd suggest that your perception of the problem as 'integration' with the racially English people as just... well, a perception.
My suggestion might be to get involved in some new activities - set yourself some challenges - to do things you've never done before - perhaps try 8 new things in a month? Different activities (ever joined a caving club, taken a cookery class, or learnt to dance salsa, been to yoga?) of course - you probably know this bit really well.
Next try and work out how you can improve the lives of those 'activity partners' - how you can make them happier. Can you offer to teach their children a skill (teach them to code/soldier/codeclub?)? Can you introduce them to some other people they might share interests with? Can you introduce them to another activity that is also fun?
Actually, I said that book might not be relevant - it definitely is. Go read it. :)
Also, if you're ever in sunny (lol!) Manchester feel free to PM me! :D
This might be worth a read. It really opened my eyes to the fact that teams ( just like individuals) can have different levels of development and how to recognize these different stages...
http://www.amazon.com/Tribal-Leadership-Leveraging-Thriving-Organization/dp/0061251321
If you want to hear a more anecdotal story about a life of a successful bipolar person with her fair share of psychosis and depression, I read this super quickly and I had been having a hard time reading: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
This book is about a journey through anxiety. The author is young and she was actually inspired by the author of the book above. First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety
If you want to read stories about great leaders who suffered through mental illness, including bipolar, along with the argument that those experiences made them the dynamic people they were with special abilities to be empathetic and reach people in ways others couldn’t, A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness.
I bought this Bipolar Workbook but haven’t had the discipline to do it yet.
>Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority—sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.
>...
>Many people with severe anxiety and/or depression are also anti-authoritarians. Often a major pain of their lives that fuels their anxiety and/or depression is fear that their contempt for illegitimate authorities will cause them to be financially and socially marginalized; but they fear that compliance with such illegitimate authorities will cause them existential death.
>...
>Americans have been increasingly socialized to equate inattention, anger, anxiety, and immobilizing despair with a medical condition, and to seek medical treatment rather than political remedies. What better way to maintain the status quo than to view inattention, anger, anxiety, and depression as biochemical problems of those who are mentally ill rather than normal reactions to an increasingly authoritarian society.
These sections of text all rang very true for me, personally.
I've been un-medicated as someone who was diagnosed with Bi-polar Type 2. I also have ADHD, which I choose to take medicine for. I've since learned to cope, and a lot of it had to deal with learning how to respect and follow my own judgements about the authorities who's control I was under, even if it meant resisting aggressively. I eventually learned to find my own solution within the boundaries of my authorities, which meant everyone won; I got to bypass incompetence, and they got someone who could be obedient within bounds. It's been a valuable resource in my successes, and has been the cause of many issues in my life.
This article provided a lot more context as to how I interpret myself and my place in life. Reading the portion about Einstein reminded me a lot of A First-Rate Madness by Nassir Ghaemi (which talks about people with bi-polar depression being the best type of leader during times of crisis). Knowing the root causes of what makes you "you" helps provide new understanding, and with it, coping mechanisms to move beyond your shortcomings.
I think you should check out the book the beginning of infinity by physicist David Deutsch.
He doesn't talk about exactly what you said, but I got the same vibe from you as I got from his book.
I always thought there should have been a subreddit called r/CompSciSoftSkills. I recently read a couple books, Peopleware and then The Mythical Man Month .
Peopleware mentioned that software development was more a sociological process than a technological one and I found that fascinating. I always thought that having a subreddit dedicated to exploring the sociological side of software development would be very interesting and revealing.
... and by extension and exploration of the skills outside whiteboards and code that apply to software dev.
C For Dummies, Volumes 1 and 2, by Dan Gookin. At almost 1200 pages, it goes through everything a beginner should know in a very readable way, with no preconditions on prior knowledge. These books will take you from a complete novice to the sort of programmer who can pick up another language similar to C (most of them) in a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately it looks like they shrunk these tomes into a single book that doesn't even mention pointers in the most recent version. C All-in-One Desk Reference may be closer.
Peopleware, by Tom DeMarco. If you ever want to manage a software development team, or even really work with a team, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Team Geek is in the same realm.
JavaScript: The Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford is a necessary read if you're doing anything significant in modern web development. JavaScript is a weird little language and if you don't know best practices, it's very, very easy to get lost. This book will tell you where not to look.
How about yourself, OP?
Thanks! Will definitely take a look! At this moment I am reading this book Peopleware:
http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-3rd/dp/0321934113/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406873165&sr=1-1&keywords=peopleware
It has similar theme: we should care about people and grow together. Unfortunately we don't really have many companies who do that. I mean, just read this thread at polycount (warning: huge wall of text):
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137206
Practically everyone is saying that the industry full of incompetent people even at higher management positions who do nothing but make peoples' lives harder. Depressing, isn't it?
I wonder if Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister has been translated to Japanese. If so, then it contains some very solid and well-reasoned arguments on how overtime is counterproductive and hurtful to the business.
Read Peopleware. I don't know how much will be directly applicable, but it sounds like you're the perfect audience for it. I think you'll get something from it.
I just chose some books that looked good from this list and this one.
The one's I got:
Clean Code
(already read)
Cracking the Coding Interview
Code Complete
Peopleware
Don't Make Me Think
Code (currently reading)
Regular Expressions Cookbook
Head First Design Patterns
C++ Primer
Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Elements of Programming Interviews in Java
The Mythical Man-Month
The Design of Everyday Things
JavaScript and JQuery
I figure that's enough reading material to last me until I graduate.
First, congratulations!
It's different work and while it's still technical it's now about people but it can be learned. Find a mentor who is not your boss. Seriously. It's good to have one or more advocates in the organization because there are limits to what "push" vs "pull" can achieve but it's their advice that you need to reduce your mistakes and effectively review them afterward.
I'll add to the book recommendations already here (The Phoenix Project, Team of Teams, Leaders Eat Last) and suggest:
Good luck!
The first book a new programmer should read is Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister.
Some additional information can help a lot in recommendations. I'd like to know the following:
What is your team size?
Is your team co-located (all in one place)?
Can you describe the type and flow of your work?
Do you have open channels of communication with your customer, and if not, do you have people who can stand in and more or less speak for the customer?
Do you think the leadership would be on board for a drastic change?
It is unlikely that the visibility and continuous improvement of an agile framework will not bring about significant improvements within your company. Also, if you are the type that thrives on facilitating a team and helping them grow to excellence, then this will be a great career change. Personally, I love my job and enjoy every day. With the above simple questions answered, it would be a lot easier to spark a conversation.
Jeff Southerland's book (already mentioned) is a great intro for Scrum, and not a boring read. I also like David Anderson's Kanban, if you have a more steady continuous workflow like a compliance or support team, this can fit better. Also, a good read. The Scrum Guide is rather short and is the definitive guide for the Scrum framework. Exactly how you execute under that framework is largely up to the team, but everything is based on the idea of iterative continuous improvement. Once you get this idea down in practice, you'll be hooked.
Thanks for the resource – bookmarked! I'm currently reading Sutherland's book, it's surprisingly really well written. https://smile.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X?sa-no-redirect=1
Our dev team thinks they work in agile, but they're definitely 'scrum but'. Also it's a sensitive political situation for me. The times I've even remotely showed interest in integrating our teams or getting involved, I've been reprimanded. So unfortunately I don't think my current situation is going to provide much in the way of opportunity to learn hands-on. I'm going to continue to see if I can find a creative solution outside of the dev side, but I'm more resigned to making the change wholesale with a new place. Also, I did sign up for the 2-day training in a few weeks, so I am committed, and hopefully soon, certified.
Curious - what kind of stormy waters have you experienced?
I agree with the other comments here.
What are you trying to achieve by getting your directs to put more time in at the office? Are they not getting projects done on time? In most cases, working additional hours past the normal results in a dramatic reduction in employee effectiveness and satisfaction. Jeff Sutherland (one of the founders of Scrum) has an entire chapter on this in his latest book.
Also, the sandwich feedback method is terrible. It is totally transparent and your directs will not respect the lack of candor. I personally prefer the Manager Tools Feedback Model of 1)asking permission to share feedback 2) stating the action 3) stating the consequences of that action. It is super simple and straight to the point. It works for both positive and corrective feedback.
https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X
Good idea. Currently selling for $13 used on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Thick-Face-Black-Heart-Philosophy/dp/0446670200 Should work just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/Astroball-New-Way-Win-All/dp/0525576649
Here you go
https://www.amazon.com/Make-So-Leadership-Lessons-Generation/dp/0671520989
High Output Management actually comes pretty close! It's a great read and talk a lot about what a great CEO does.
http://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884
Personally, my go-to leadership books are The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 5 Levels of Leadership both by John C Maxwell.
There are many books on how to be a good leader, and not that many on how to go from a good to a great leader. I know 4 really good books in the latter category:
For those that want more to read.
Listen to the people who work for you. For every one person under you it takes a few hours a week to manage as a rule of thumb. When I say manage, I talk about leadership, developing them, understanding them, understanding how they want to grow and stretch.
I highly recommend reading the following book too about teams. It's a great book and in my experience holds true with small teams and large global teams.
http://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
I'm 31 and just started my own company. When I turned 16, I had a profound epiphany about what I wanted to do "when I grew up". That epiphany was I wanted to own my own business. The why, came from the experiences I had since I was 14.
I worked as a delivery guy for two guys who owned a bounce house company. At 15, I was employee 1 at an advertising company. I started in the mailroom stuffing envelopes and I continued to work for that company through college and even a few months after graduating college. I didn't stay in the mailroom though. As I taught myself programming and a little design, I was growing within the company, as they themselves grew in revenue and size. I was getting a front row seat to what it was like to be an entrepreneur and I loved every minute of it; the long hours, the struggles, the doing whatever it takes, carving your own path, etc.
Even though I knew being an entrepreneur was part of my path in life, it has taken me 16 yrs to make that a reality. I have no regrets as I've been able to gain knowledge and experience the entire time. Everything you experience in life can help you in some way on your path to becoming an entrepreneur.
Remember, you can do a lot of good by being an employee too. You have not failed if you don't start a company.
Suggested Reading
I'll say my books aren't expressly feminine. They're more about dynamics, relationships, motivations, which have helped to prevent me from going wild with aggressive masculine approaches despite my surroundings and peers. Thank goodness I found these so early :)
I loved Captivating, which is about women from a Christian perspective and it's counterpart called Wild at Heart, which is about men. Neither of them were too overwhelmingly Christian, IMO.
Another book with Christian influences, The Servant is a book about leadership theory that's been very helpful to me stepping into a more nurturing and deferring approach.
Five Dysfunctions of a Team is my very favorite book ever, and it discusses the reasons teams (be it a couple, sports team, friend group, or work group) fail and how to prevent that. Very helpful in learning why vulnerability, an important feminine trait, is so important.
https://amzn.to/2Ku6Xbi - The Ideal Team Player
https://amzn.to/31zGqPs - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
https://amzn.to/2Ku8UEE - Extreme Ownership
https://amzn.to/2YXLkE3 - Dichotomy of Leadership
https://buffer.com/library/social-proof
You might want to read a few Marketing books if you're going to start a business. (https://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667, https://www.amazon.com/Contagious-Things-Catch-Jonah-Berger/dp/1451686587/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=A83W2B73QMKMTAK2D36K)
https://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667
Best I've read and it's not close.
I think most marketers would agree this book is a great starting point to learn some of the fundamental marketing principles(theories).
https://www.amazon.ca/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667
I will caution you when you do google searches for marketing that there are endless numbers of crappy “marketing courses” and gurus — don’t waste your money.
Many people mistakenly think that just because they're good at social media that they will be good at social media marketing. It's an entirely different beast.
Do you have any experience in branding or marketing basics? You need to be able to create strategic briefs, messaging guides, create and effectively track goals that will solve your client's pain points.
Recommended books:
Ogilvy on Advertising
22 Immutable Laws of Branding
22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
After that I would learn more about content marketing. How to create good, compelling stories that not only engages the brand's followers but stores that legitimately helps them as well.
Blogs to subscribe to:
Content Marketing Institute
Hubspot
*CMI also had a podcast called PNR that is a great way to keep up on latest news, trends and predictions. I recommend subscribing to it.
Speaking of blogs, consider including them as part of your content strategy. They make easy fodder for social posts and drive traffic to the client website.
A few final things to note:
That's about all I got for now. Lemme know if you have any questions.
A few recommendations:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601630328/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (Ca$hvertising)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887306667/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (the 22 immutable laws of marketing)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591845335/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (Seth Godin)
There's too many to name. There's not really a lot that pack so much punch that they're more important than getting your hands dirty and doing.
And I have these in my list on amazon. Would love to get some opinions on them:
 
How to Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
 
Secrets of a Freelance Writer: How to Make $100,000 a Year or More
by Robert Bly
 
Words that Sell
by Richard Bayan
 
Tested Advertising Methods
by Caples and Hahn
 
Writing That Works
by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson
 
Confessions of an Advertising Man
by David Ogilvy
 
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
by Al Ries and Jack Trout
 
The Robert Collier Letter Book
by Robert Collier
 
Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose
by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee
 
Letting Go of the Words
by Janice (Ginny) Redish
 
Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers
by Harold Evans
 
Can I Change Your Mind?: The Craft and Art of Persuasive Writing
by Lindsay Camp
 
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer
by Roy Peter Clark
 
Read Me: 10 Lessons for Writing Great Copy
by Roger Horberry and Gyles Lingwood
 
Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads
by Luke Sullivan
 
WRITE IN STEPS: The super simple book writing method
by Ian Stables
 
On Writing Well
by William Zinsser
 
The Wealthy Freelancer
by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage and Ed Gandia
 
Write Everything Right!
by Denny Hatch
 
The Secret of Selling Anything
by Harry Browne
 
The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of All Time
by Chris Murray
 
On Writing
by Stephen King
 
Writing for the Web
by Lynda Felder
 
Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
by Ann Handley
 
This book will teach you how to write better
by Neville Medhora
Your intuition is 100% spot on and defines the difference between a product-oriented approach and a market-oriented approach.
Product Orientation states that somebody already has an idea for a product they're attempting to sell, they just need to figure out how to sell it. This is usually the case with things like restaurants, for example, who specialize in a particular category of food, but also usually the case for somebody who feels they can improve the field they already work in. This mindset believes with the correct sales push, anything can be sold. It's also where we got the phrase "location, location, location".
Market Orientation takes the opposite approach and asks, "what problems are there in the world that need solving" and then attempts to build a product revolving around that. This mindset requires an immense amount of research as well as the flexibility to work within whatever field your research suggests and goes against the "follow your dreams" mantra we've been taught as kids.
Generally speaking, product orientation is considered a bit dated and market orientation is more successful. That said, the age of the internet is changing this theory a bit. From my perspective, product orientation is still a valid strategy, it just has a higher risk of failure.
But with all that said, the book I'm grabbing that pyramid from (The Lean Product Playbook) assumes you've already designated a product you're working on. It's less for the entrepreneur and more for the average product designer working for a company who already have a product in mind.
Here's a link to the book if you felt like learning more about it:
https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874
Also, there is Harvard class on EDX based on similar ideas and a book which the class is based on
https://www.edx.org/course/unlocking-immunity-change-new-approach-harvardx-gse1-1x#.VLGMRnuzlbA
http://www.amazon.com/Immunity-Change-Potential-Organization-Leadership/dp/1422117367
What do you want to do with coaching, long-term? That answer will have some effect on your next steps as far as what you're willing to do to get it.
As others have said, learning from people in informal settings. The formal coaching education path is a lot more forged than it used to be, but the majority of learning as a coach happens through informal means. Formal coaching education is stuff like USL clinics, conferences, etc. Informal education is all the rest of it--talking to people, shadowing other coaches' practices, etc. These are only going to happen if you want them to and are somewhat aggressive about pursuing them.
I'm similar to you. Played MCLA, in my fourth year of HS coaching, USL-2, and not in a hotbed area. A lot of my learning is online, stuff like Duke's coaching clinics are available and useful in that regard.
http://www.goduke.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=2027&SPSID=654167
There are also Facebook groups for coaches as well as lacrosse coaches. Check out Coaching Mastery Group as a decent example.
I listen to a lot of podcasts, both specific to lacrosse and about coaching more broadly. Winning Youth Coaching is a great podcast about sports coaching overall with some lacrosse specific coaches on there too, including the host. http://winningyouthcoaching.com/
I'm attending the University of Denver's online MA in sport coaching program. It's awesome, but definitely only a move if you're serious about coaching as more of a career interest due to the tuition tag.
I made /r/coachingarticles as a sort of bookmark folder for me to link dump stuff that I've found useful, from my grad program and otherwise.
I also read a lot. Petro's Lacrosse Book is a good one: https://www.amazon.com/Lacrosse-Technique-Tradition-Second-Classic/dp/0801884101
Oh, LaxPlayBook.com has a free youtube channel that is a good resource too. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOeQMADCPxLvt3bMc92iAA
Ultimately though, now that you're past the basics/x's and o's stage, it's going to come down to a lot of individual player management, team culture, team leadership, etc. more than it is new schemes and plays. That means you've got sport psych and stuff to read too, and there are tons of books out there about building team culture, etc. Legacy by James Kerr is an excellent one.
The only ones I can think of is Hagakure and Go Rin No Sho. Obviously, you'd have to track down the japanese version of the books (I assume via amazon.jp), but I neither speak nor read japanese, so I would defer to you.
Like say the US Marine Corps' Professional Reading List? I think all branches have reading lists.
One's I've actually read::
I'm particularly fond of The Village by Bing West.
There's Power To The Edge which is more modern
Also yes, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, also Nicolo Machiavelli's Art of War, On War by Clausewitz, On Combat by Grossman even though I have some issues with it.
Hope this helps.
EDIT: I can't believe I forgot The Book of Five Rings by Musashi
God, this is something I've thought about a lot...
I lived in Japan when I was in college, and one of the biggest things I noticed was the huge difference the two cultures have on learning, what I ended up calling The Cult of Originality and The Cult of Mastery.
In The Cult of Mastery, the Japanese method, originality isn't valued as highly as the complete mastery of the fundamentals, followed by the mastery of an already existing style. After multiple styles are mastered, that's when the learner can start melding them together, to create something unique, and perhaps his own style, but this is an afterthought, not the goal.
The other side of the coin is the American Cult of Originality, in which the goal is to create new material from day one, and the fundamentals are only a stepping stone to that creation of your own new material.
To put this in return top terms, in Japan, a flawless execution of a routine in Jensen Kimmet's style will score higher in a competition than a flawed original execution. In America, the reverse is true, originality will always win.
My biggest takeaway from all of this, as an American, is to not give a shit if people think my style is derivative. I've only been taking throwing seriously for about nine months, which ain't a long time. I will keep drilling the fundamentals, and mimicking styles I like, all with the faith that originality will come at when those fundamentals are not enough.
If you like this line of thinking, I would really recommend the books The Art of Learning (by the guy who Searching for Bobby Fisher was based on, who became a world champion in martial arts later on in life), The Road to Excellence (which is expensive, but you can find pdfs of on the internet), Malcom Gladwell's Outliers, and The Book of Five Rings
I would say the BEST book is this one, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)–Fifth Edition.
The reason why, is the PMP/CAMP/Project+ are all based on this book. So not only will it get you Project+, but it will also prepare you for the other two certs from PMI. It's not short, I mean it's 600 pages, but it really is the best for these certs.
Otherwise, I think the Sybex book is your best bet. It's half the size and will only focus on the topics covered in Project+
Not all of these are in our core training/ required knowledge, or related to our day to day functions as a university A/V department, but They are all available to my team for knowledge building and professional development. Additionally , and our job ladder includes Infocomm certifications, so the library is a little biased towards infocomm resources at the moment.
Books I use are
http://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Alton-Everest/dp/0071603328)
just ordered digital video and hd
based on a recommendation in r/videoengineering
infocomm's audio and visual systems design, essentials of the av industry, av best practices, AV installation hand book
white papers/ online training from extron, JBL, Dalite, surgeX, bluejeanscable, and others. (out of the office and do not have the exact list and links with me
Hi I'm a graphic designer, UX engineer, and I have worked for a lot with a bunch of different PMs. Some have been great and some treat people really badly. I can share what was most effective for me and the other graphic designers I have worked with.
When it comes to the long hours I would like to ask who is making the estimates for the projects? I really recommend including the designers when you are making your estimates and scoping out the work. This not only will help you get better estimates but it creates buy in from the designers so that they feel more committed to meeting those estimates. I have seen PMs throw work over the wall to people to complete in unrealistic time frames or unrealistic prices. The person doing the estimate didnt know rendering an animation would take 4 days and 100% use of someone's computer etc. All parties end up blaming each other for not having the right talents and in the end its just the project that is put at risk.
As far them asking other resources to be involved. Somewhere they got the notion they could do that, they feel they have no choice, or they are doing some skill swapping and team building between departments. I really recommend looking into why this is happening before bringing down the hammer on anyone, a lot of times there is some other resource issue occurring that needs to be resolved. If you can approach it as a way to help solve their underlying problem people are more likely to be open to change.
Liability:
Reference:
This may seem lame but I totally recommend reading the PMBOK for reference. Don't feel like you have to take the test but I think it covers a lot of the responsibilities of PMs well. PMBOK
Sorry if this is very pro designer but I have seen way way too many PMs just pretend we aren't people. If you can gain peoples respect you have have an awesome job. Hope this helps. Good luck.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things -- Ben Horowitz. GREAT as an audiobook.
Traction: Get a grip on your business -- Gino Wickman. Good for unknotting the reasons for constantly stalling out on progress. It's meant for large offices, apparently, but even my little office benefited since the habits are universal.
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph -- Ryan Holiday
How are you marketing your business currently?
Here's some good books to read although they're geared more towards managing and motivating a workforce. Others may have better recommendations for books on growing as a startup or small business. Ultimately, you need to focus on marketing your company and targeting your ideal customer.
Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet
https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Ship-Around-Turning-Followers/dp/1591846404
How to Become a Great Boss by Jeffrey Fox
https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Great-Boss-Employees/dp/0786868236/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484506909&sr=1-2&keywords=how+to+a+great+boss
How to Be a Great Boss by Gino Wickman
https://www.amazon.com/How-Great-Boss-Gino-Wickman/dp/1942952848/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484506909&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+a+great+boss
Good to Great by Jim Collins (I just started this)
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484507074&sr=1-1&keywords=good+to+great
EDIT: Here's another one.
Traction. Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman. I haven't read this but the CEO did and we use the structure and methods from this book to run our company. https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
I'm in the same boat. Product Hunt surge, now need to work on marketing. I just read a book called "Traction" that is interesting. It lists out 19 different channels and provides recent examples and case studies. I'm not going to follow the book verbatim, but there are definitely some good takeaways.
http://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
Yes, I've read Verne's second book, Scaling Up. I would recommend skipping that one though and going straight to "Traction" which is like "Scaling Up" but for smaller companies. "Traction" has become very popular in the entrepreneurial community the past few years and it's a great system to run a business in.
Gino Wickman.
https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
In your scenario, I feel like simplicity is going to be key because this your first time doing it.
I discuss your question in my video: https://youtu.be/tvK0BYO-9R0?t=529
​
A lot can get lost in extravagant business plans. The important thing is that you can PROVE what you have done and that it works. Basically, will putting more money into this engine = a return?
I strongly recommend High output management by Andy Grove. Theres a reason it's called the Silicon Valley bible and so many tech leaders swear by it. I've read a lot of leadership books on managing people and this is the one I still keep coming back to.
Theres a lot of good stuff from Peter Drucker (pretty much the first guy to write on management as a discipline) that is timeless. Ironically he was good friends with Andy Grove and you can see some concepts borrowed from Drucker in High output management. The effective executive is probably his best work but Essential Drucker is a good compilation of a lot his stuff.
Eliyahu Goldratts Theory of constraints is really good as well as some of hi ls other stuff. He was accused of just copying old concepts from management science that was 40 years old. Thats probably true, but his books are still fantastic
As somebody who likes playing devil's advocate, and doesn't have all the context:
There's a popular management self-help book called Tribal Leadership. Maybe that's what the "tribal meetings" comment was about? Douchey consultants love that kind of language.
The asian guy in the jungle with a loincloth and big knives seems like a weird stereotype to make with asians. You'd think they'd mention how he was great at math or something. You sure he's not a prepper, survivalist, or other similar outdoor enthusiast? I'm a white dude and my coworkers make those same comments about me.
While not specifically sociopathy, the a book A First Rate Madness addresses the link between leadership and mental illness. I found it fascinating.
http://www.amazon.com/First-Rate-Madness-Uncovering-Between-Leadership/dp/0143121332
is "a first-rate madness" (amazon link) considered a credible book?
written by psychiatrist nassir ghaemi with due diligence on primary historical sources (will edit to add details, but currently on mobile) hitler discussion in the book is a digression from "first-rate" leaders who had neurodiverse leadership styles in times of crisis: resilience, originality and high empathy.
hitler never displayed high empathy... not surprisingly.
> The person Adolf Hitler is not very interesting.
I don't think he was neurotypical. examples from the book include grandiose discussions of destiny with his childhood friend.
> Let me expand: The private thoughts of Adolf Hitler do not hold the key for understanding Nazism and the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler, like any of us, is in his political convictions, in his role of the "Führer", in his programmatics, and in his success, a creation of his time.
agree that he was interacting with a weak political system and a culture ripe for revenge ideology. World War II being the revenge war for World War I.
edit: ghaemi used august kubizek's memoir "the young hitler I knew" for his commentary "beginning with symptoms, hitler had clear manic and depressive episodes throughout his life." kubizek's memoir was written 10 years after hitler's death and "most historians accept the general veracity of kubizek's account." that's what ghaemi wrote about the source.
edit 2: to clarify, "hitler never displayed high empathy"... I meant "us vs them" mentality which was violent even in the beginning.
https://www.amazon.com/First-Rate-Madness-Uncovering-Between-Leadership/dp/0143121332
This book looks at Lincoln, Hitler, GWB, a couple of civil war generals, homoclites (which was really interesting), and others.
https://www.amazon.com/First-Rate-Madness-Uncovering-Between-Leadership/dp/0143121332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506404345&sr=8-1&keywords=a+madness+ghaemi
Hey friend,
Try to meditate. It really helps. But be careful, that you don't sit with your eyes closed, and start to think about how you are anxious about everything. No. Just sit there for 20 minutes (set the timmer) and count your breath. Try focusing on it being long enough, and not abrupt as in panic attacks.
You have to accept one thing. Nothing will make you happy in the outside world. You need to be happy with yourself. Our time on this planet is limited, if you want to be friends with one person, let it be yourself.
I don't want to force any religion upon you, and I am atheist myself, but living on this planet with nothing to put faith in can be really hard. If you believe in something, trust it with your whole heart. Say 'Jesus, I believe in you' or even better, 'I believe in myself'. And really do. Act as you know best for yourself. Never do anything for others. Have the courage to do as you want.
And remember. You are not worst than anyone. The greatest leaders were all depressed in some time of their lives. In order to be happy,
one has to feel down sometimes. I haven't read this book yet, but if you feel like it's interesting give it a try A first-Rate Madness
The book A First Rate Madness talks at length about great leaders in times of crisis who went through depression. Having to endure enabled, or rather forced, them to develop a deeper level of empathy or resolve. It's a great read about the positives of mental illness that not many people are discussing.
Here's a link to the book on Amazon if it piqued your interest:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143121332/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1459228791&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=a+first+rate+madness&dpPl=1&dpID=518LWMl9xBL&ref=plSrch
Malthus was wrong because he pretended that both sides of the equation were known and could be extrapolated; in reality, only one side was correctly extrapolated (the population growth) while he failed to account for yet-to-come developments on the other side. Of course, he couldn’t know these developments but it is a typical statistical mistake to assume that we can just extrapolate from past trends.
This is a common theme with (pessimist) predictions. David Deutsch discusses this in great detail in the fascinating The Beginning of Infinity and shows why we should be wary of such proclamations.
also this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HeuristicWorld/comments/cgwe9s/fundamental_misconceptions_of_inductivism/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
Though nothing better than the source:
https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch is probably the book that has had the most impact on my thinking and view of the world, the universe and everything else.
 
It covers an extremely wide variety of subjects and is therefore difficult to sum up, but basically it tries to form a giant, coherent worldview with explanations as the center of everything.
 
You really have to read the book to appreciate just how magnificent it is, and hopefully it will change your way of thinking as profoundly and positively as it has changed my own. For a really good primer, listen to this podcast where Sam Harris interviews David Deutch.
Peopleware - Gives interesting insights into the "soft" side of software development
Maybe leave a copy of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams lying around prominently? It has a number of studies showing that a quiet, distraction-free workplace does pay off.
> What I'd give to just move my desk into a corner, or to face a wall, but I'm not sure that would go over well.
> My stuff is on a shelf, and there's no room to put anything on the desk.
The appropriate adage here is "It's easier to ask forgiveness than get permission". There's a clear business need for developers to not be distracted while working; reconfigure/move your area one evening—see if you can get someone else to do the same, there's strength in numbers—and see how it goes. (I take it you've already tried raising the issue through normal channels.) If asked, explain that you're easily distracted by conversations and people walking by (i.e., couch it as your weakness, not their lousy setup) and really need to make some process on the Frobnicator feature if it's to be done by next Tuesday.
If you need space for pictures or toys or other personalization, stack a couple boxes/crates on each other to extend your desk. Call it "startup chic". Maybe it'll shame them into giving you more space.
> but it often gets derailed because we have a fairly large team and everyone seems to feel the need to say something, even if it is only tangentially related to the topic of discussion.
Oh no. Any meeting with more than 5 people trying to have a dialogue is a terrible idea...
> It's funny you mention adding stories to the sprint for meeting attendance because that's exactly what we do. I don't even want to look at how many hours I've logged so far for this sprint. It's mind-boggling.
My god, it's worse than I thought! I was half joking when I said that...
> How would you justify refusing to attend these meetings?
Well, it kind of depends on a few things, like how much you like your manager, how good is your relationship with your 2nd line manager, how much do you care about the job, how much can you get away with, etc.
In your sprint retrospectives, have you considered making one of the "Stop" actions being "Stop spending so much time during sprints discussing issues that are more appropriate for sprint retrospectives?" or "Stop having so many meetings"? BTW, does your manager attend your retrospectives? I don't believe they're supposed to, but even if they do, it might be a good way for all of you to unite and express your feelings on the matter in a "safety in numbers" group environment.
Otherwise, it sounds like you've already tried the diplomatic approach of talking to your manager (I assume privately?) about the meetings, and expressing that you don't think they're a productive use of your time. If you're on good terms with your 2nd line manager, you might consider mentioning it to them. Or, I don't know what your work environment is like (small/big office?), but what would happen if you just didn't go to the meeting? Or, what would happen if you just got up and left when the discussion drifted into the sprint issues away from the agenda?
Also, not sure it'll help, but you might consider buying your manager a copy of Peopleware. Every dev manager should read this. Even developers should read it. Of course, then you'll be even more pissed about all the stuff your management is doing wrong...
I think a start with SCRUM requires understanding of roots of this methodology, that is why I would start from reading (or re-reading if you are already familiar with the book) of Doing Twice the Work in Half a Time by Jeff Sutherland.
Then go for the Scrum Guide, it is all there.
I believe that right implementation of SCRUM requires 2 things: discipline (military roots) and shuhari concept from martial arts. In simple words, you need to start doing it step-by-step and it is obligatory to do it by the book, you will not master it in 1 day and SCRUM is always a process of a continuous improvement.
Start with the things that are simple to implement and give the best results:
- working in sprints (1 week is great);
- daily stand up;
- sprint review;
- retrospectives;
- backlog and user stories;
- deliver to production at the end of each sprint;
- focus on 1 user story at a time, etc, etc.
then you can go for certifications: CSM is a good way to start and understand if you want to keep on getting certificates and you would understand that there are many ways to keep on improving your SCRUM further.
don't forget that Jeff Sutherland has a bunch of online lectures about SCRUM @ https://www.scruminc.com ,
someone already recommended to read Mike Cohn, I double that.
Jeff Sutherland's book Agile: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time is a great read for anyone that hasn't practiced Agile.
http://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X
One of the first books I read which brough my attention to the subject was:
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X
After that - take anything google throws at you ;)
Well, it's not a complete guide of "how to be a good manager" but this is the canonical (I believe) book about Scrum, which is a specific implementation of the vague mess known as "agile."
https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X
It's pretty short, 256 pages. I think that after the first few chapters you'd have a pretty good sense of whether or not you think it's interesting or if you think it's bullshit.
If you want to know how to be a good manager, I'd suggest this book. It's not about management but it's pretty good primer on how to work with people.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034
If I could pick two books for all my managers to read and really take to heart, it would be those two.
I'm just now implementing Scrum formally within our company. For me, at the time, it's all upside. I have a CEO & COO that are non-technical (at least as far as software development is concerned), that have really been struggling to understand the team's productivity in a meaningful way.
For me, being able to plan sprints and develop a velocity has been a game-changer. It's very easy now for them to prioritize work and know with a high degree of confidence where we will be after our sprint is finished. That's very important to them, so Scrum really simplifies my life because it's much easier to plan with them using the tools it provides.
I personally purchased Jeff Sutherland's book "Scrum", who was a co-creator, through Audible. Worked pretty well as an e-book, since the complexity is pretty low and most of it was conceptual. https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X/
SCRUM! a good overall book is SCRUM
This scrum book specifically values regular time off, and even espouses a 4 day week.
Check out The Art of 'Ware
Whether in or out of the tech industry, this is a good example of adapting the work to practical business application.
Also The Asian Mind Game and the even more controversial Thick Face, Black Heart are essential business reading.
Lure the Tiger from the Mountain is all nice sounding and exotic. When you're talking about forcing business competitors to fight you on your terms, it's better.
When you see how smart phones looked (largely) unlike the iPhone before Apple entered the market, and like knock-offs after Apple entered the market, then you understand lure the tiger from the mountain.
Having read The Art of War is for cocktail party talk. Few who talk about having read it apply it.
I like The Four Agreements a lot. https://www.miguelruiz.com/the-four-agreements
And my coach pointed me to Thick Face, Black Heart, which is also great. https://www.amazon.com/Thick-Face-Black-Heart-Philosophy/dp/0446670200
Thick Face Black Heart is also good.
that's like the whole point of astroball (discussed in depth in Astroball by Ben Reiter) that analytics and advanced metrics can give us a ton of information to use but the idea of Gut Feel and emotion really can and should play a huge part in the decision making process
There's a management book called "make it so" with this thought process
https://www.amazon.com/Make-So-Leadership-Lessons-Generation/dp/0671520989
https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468936714&sr=8-1&keywords=high+output+management
Good for you bilbobillikins! A couple of books that helped me make the transition were - High Output Management and First, Break All the Rules. Apart from this there is a great series of podcasts where Mike and Mark talk about various challenges and have a great perspective on how to deal with typical situation that managers would face. You can find them at Manager Tools website.
To become a better person takes intentionality, meaning you have to make a decision to make a change every time something new and unwholesome presents itself to you regarding yourself. The Bible is certainly a plumb line on major things to do to become a better person, but it's also full of pictures of individuals who showed the way for being amazing people.
I've found that the more I study leadership, psychology, emotional intelligence, etc., the more I see a blue print for it in the Bible, in particular, demonstrated by Christ himself.
If you want to be the best version of yourself, study servant-based leadership. Jesus was a servant leader. The apostles learned from Jesus how to be servant leaders. Servant leadership is the mortal granularity that made the gospel so transformative and helped it spread like a wildfire. If you are essentially having to "sell" a new religious belief system in the 1st century, you've got to be able to believe the salesman as well as the integrity of the product, right? The product is salvation and the sales pitch is a new way of walking in freedom and living a wholesome, abundant life. Christ's leadership model did just that.
If you want some good reads on leadership, check these out, and then read the new testament chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Keep in mind, you don't need a title or position to be a leader -- that's what servant leadership is all about.
"Spiritual Leadership" by J. Oswald Sanders: Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence For Every Believer (Sanders Spiritual Growth Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802416705/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_u.ZhDbPEN8952
"Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis: Mere Christianity https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060652926/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Ma0hDbTCSG70T
More leadership for business and for life:
"The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" by John C. Maxwell: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You (10th Anniversary Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0785288376/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_cc0hDbRCMAGMZ
"The 5 Levels of Leadership" by John C. Maxwell: The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential https://www.amazon.com/dp/1599953633/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6c0hDbK4RV56Y
Please go and buy and read all of these this week, for the sake of you and your team:-
https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Growth/dp/1491973897
https://www.amazon.ca/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-Engineering/dp/1430243147
https://www.amazon.ca/Debugging-Teams-Productivity-through-Collaboration/dp/1491932058
https://www.amazon.ca/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
This book has helped us a lot to think about the team, management and studio dynamics. I would recommend it - it doesn't matter that it isn't game industry specific, nor how big your team is.
https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
Scrum masters can come from any background. Having PM knowledge is helpful but not required. A scrum master is a guide and coach for the team. They are responsible for ensuring the team is following the rules of scrum, facilitating their meetings, and overall helping the team on the path to high performance.
Understanding the rules of scrum and the agile principles are more important. In your first SM role you will likely be following the scrum guide as closely as possible but the importance will be in understanding why the practices exist. What is important in the daily scrum? Why do we ask the 3 questions? What is the real goal in that meeting? etc... Eventually guiding and facilitating becomes more about the principles, outcomes, and goals than the rules of scrum but that comes with time.
Pay attention to the people on the team. I suggest looking into some personality or team-working books as a scrum master should be in tune enough to understand the work being done (technical and business purposes) and how the people work together. Conflicts amongst team members can be a difficult impediment to remove.
Any product will spawn competition. You can either let another company be the competition, or you can provide your own competing product.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a fantastic book that covers many ideas like this, and provides insight into much of how we think as humans. Read it and consider, for example, the rise and fall of various open source projects as you do.
It amazes me how many parallels I see between these actions and these teachings which in my views may have been valid once when global communication was muted; but now that connections are bridged through the Internet completely fall apart. And yet I STILL constantly see business/markets cling desperately to these dusty philosophies...
I thoroughly enjoyed The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
Podcasts:
Books:
Book Recommendation
> Here's a link to the book if you felt like learning more about it: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874
Thanks for the link. How much does this book differ from Lean Startup Method? I've read that, but would be willing to give this one a shot if you think it's worth my while.
edit: ordered it anyways. Currently reading "User Story Mapping" by Jeff Patton but will dive in as soon as I'm finished, thanks for the reco.
The people behind the course are the authors
Das book:
http://www.amazon.com/Immunity-Change-Potential-Organization-Leadership/dp/1422117367
Pick up a copy of The Book of Five Rings or The Dhammapada and add them to your study. You can still read the Bible and Mormon "scriptures" but approach them as literary works: character, dialogue, plot, theme, metaphor, philosophy, etc.
Thank you, I'm flattered
that you could be impressed by five book that I hold dear to my heart. I have strong feelings about adding books to my collection, as it's far more important to me to know a book, that to simply be able to purchase it. I have far too many books that I confess I'm only acquainted with, and do not know deeply :( A good book owns me as much as I own it. I carry it with me in my thoughts.
>I would love to read more about that but I have this fear of not understanding their way of life, of respect, of loyalty to the monarch/ shogun.
Instead, please take my offering of a small library of five books on samurai aesthetics.
I hope you are much more impress by the quality of the words written in these books, and what they might evoke in you, rather than their habitation in my life. I am but the humble reader.
> That's last in the book so either I've read the book or I had read the wikipedia page before you mentioned it
You already said you didn't read the book, so yeah, the table of contents in the wikipedia article mentioned it, or you pulled it from a quote site. We already know you didn't read it.
> h, and it also happens to be very near the bottom of the wikipedia page, suggesting that I did in fact not only read the first paragraph.
Or one of those other options. Good job, though. I'm sure you totally grocked the book of the void in all its context by skipping to the end of the wiki article (assuming that's what you did).
> You still don't get it do you. The downvotes are there because you aren't even making arguments for your cause.
I don't need to argue. You haven't read the book, you don't know enough about it to make any suggestions about its material. It's a book about martial prowess and the mindset with which you approach combat. Trying to pull anything else out of it is a fool's errand- which you've proven by trying to do without so much as an initial reading.
You aren't equipped to talk about it. I tried to be nice, but you just aren't. Let me know when you've given it a nice, respectful reading, and then we can talk.
https://smile.amazon.com/Book-Five-Rings-Miyamoto-Musashi/dp/1590309847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481739643&sr=8-1&keywords=book+of+five+rings
Here you go. It's cheap and if you use that link something will go to charity. Buy it, read it over a month or so (it's short, but not meant to be taken in a single brief reading), and come back when you have an opinion worth taking into account.
Well if you are looking for study material here are some links to books I suggest.
http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Project-Management-Body-Knowledge/dp/1935589679/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405382005&sr=8-1&keywords=pmbok
http://www.amazon.com/PMP-Exam-Prep-Eighth-Edition/dp/1932735658/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
http://pmhigherlearning.com/project-management-exam-guide/
Any other pointers?
Books on project management, software development lifecycle, history of computing/programming, and other books on management/theory. It's hard to read about actual programming if you can't practice it.
Some of my favorites:
You can't exactly learn to program without doing, but hopefully these books will give you good ideas on the theories and management to give you the best understanding when you get out. They should give you an approach many here don't have to realize that programming is just a tool to get to the end, and you can really know before you even touch any code how to best organize things.
IF you have access to a computer and the internet, look into taking courses on Udacity, Coursera, and EDX. Don't go to or pay for any for-profit technical school no matter how enticing their marketing may tell you you'll be a CEO out of their program.
I can recommend some books. Don't get irritated by the titles or the covers. These are solid books from people who know what they are writing about.
My awnser has nothing to do with gun laws and all with the presumption than the US is more prone to violence because of some special minorities. As far as I know, all evidence seams to point to a mix of relationship between persived groups. First how much a group defines oneself as victim of the cultural divergence. This divergence is effected by economical division, religion/worldview, vertical mobility in the "gesellschaft". In that order. Based on the Tribal leadership one could structure all social groups in a system which could explain which has the highest probability to react with violence on persived external forces.
In the US, almost all groups identify as victims of "the system", this manifest in the discussion culture, policeforce/judicial culture, conflicts around recorces and so on. Violence is just an aspect of this intergroup communication.
In Europe culture of integration of diffrent cultural groups is stronger. Germany, italy, the UK, Spain and France are on of the biggest countries in Europe all are worldwide special, because of its integration of diffrent cultural heritages.
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time is the most important. It is Scrum broken down by the creator of Scrum. It’s filled with some good empirical data and is pretty trade-agnostic. Not super specific for tech work just work in general. If you want a good tech use-case of scrum and agile methodologies The Lean Startup is pretty insightful and convinced me that documenting every detail of a product before developing never works.
You're asking for advice on how to change the mindset of your patients.
You might want to look into a book (backed by research) called "Immunity to Change".
I highly recommend it.
Video: http://youtu.be/FFYnVmGu9ZI?t=42s
Article: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Professors-Kegan-and-Lahey-on-the-Challenges-of-Change
Book: http://www.amazon.ca/Immunity-Change-Potential-Organization-Leadership/dp/1422117367
Edit: video link changed to start at 42s