Michael Lopp
Appress, 2007
Michael Lopp
ISBN 159059844X
Buy it from Amazon.com
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk
Like Adrenaline Junkies, or the grand-daddy of them all The Mythical Man-Month, this is essentially a book of project management essays, based on personal experience. It's light; easy to read; often amusing; sometimes downright rude; and it's calculated to make you reflect on your own practice as a manager.
The subject matter is, as you might expect, hugely varied.
There are tips on how to write a better résumé (CV if you prefer), that a busy manager will actually notice - and what to do in the thirty seconds you have to influence his or her decision.
There are telling anecdotes. In Taking Time to Think, Lopp has lunch with a friend, Phillip, who's running a startup company without a pause. Phillip "is scribbling furiously on the white paper tablecloth." Lopp listens and looks on sadly.
"I nod, watching the scribbles becoming increasingly incoherent. I'd buy Phillip a nice glass of Chianti to take the edge off, but he's a Mormon, so I try the truth.
Phil, you're screwed twice........ Phil, in order to create, you've got to think."
No wonder people seek Lopp out.
From the Back Cover
Managing Humans is a selection of the best essays from Michael Lopp's popular website http://www.randsinrepose.com/. Lopp is one of the most sought-after IT managers in Silicon Valley, and draws on his experiences at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, and Borland. Among his fans is the incomparable Joel Spolsky (author of Joel on Software), who first suggested this book. The book covers handling conflict, managing wildly differing personality types, infusing innovation into insane product schedules, and figuring out how to build lasting and useful engineering culture. The essays are biting, hilarious, and always informative.
Michael Lopp is a Senior Software Engineering Manager for Apple Computer. His previous positions as an IT manager include such companies as Icarian, Netscape, Symantec, and Borland.
© Ian Alexander 2009
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