a little too punchy

There's some good stuff in here, I found the bits about managing I'm part 1 well balanced. My issue is that the overall tone of the book was that of a dying breed of a know-it-all SV success who doesn't mind "telling you how it is" and ruffling a few feathers along the way. There's nothing winsome about the author's delivery, and at times the advice comes off as downright stereotypical judgements. Maybe there's wisdom lost for the tech industry when this archetype retires or goes FT into VC work, but I'm not mourning the loss.

4 people found this helpful

Blog turned book

If you're looking for the latest management science, with enlightening studies boiled down to easily digestible takeways, this isn't it.

If you're looking for "biting and humorous tales", this isn't it either. It's actually not very story-heavy.

Its origin as a blog explains why this feels less cohesive than a book written from the ground up.

Well, what IS this then?

This is one person with software leadership experience giving his personal point of view on how management in IT works. He never uses commonly accepted terms when he can create and name his own concepts, requiring you to then remember both the concept and his name for it. For example, he uses the term "free electrons" several times in the book, only defining it in one of the last chapters as a truly exceptional super-genius engineer (others might refer to them as 10x engineers) that handles massive amounts of complex work in very short amounts of time. Speaking of, one of his pieces of advice is that if you're behind schedule and your team lacks the technical expertise needed, the ideal solution is to get one of this "free electrons" - even though he admits they are so rare that a manager will likely only see, at most, a couple of them in their entire career.

I'm sure he's a great leader in his own way, but not all of his advice meshed with me. Such as that he is most effective at concentrating when he is doing five things at once, and that one of his habits is to hire someone to clean the house, and then to spend an hour a week readjusting exactly how his mess is arranged once the cleaning is done.

To be fair, much of the book attempts to be tactical, practical advice you can start using right away, so some people will get benefit from it.

2 people found this helpful

Let's do it again!

This is the kind of easy listening book with so many nuggets of pure gold that you both WANT to and NEED to relisten. I listened to it twice in the first week I had it and 3 times in the first month. About to go start time number 4.

1 person found this helpful

One Opinion

The whole book is anecdotal. Not to discredit years of experience, the content is still valuable, but in a book, I want a larger sample size, study results, and more convincing evidence.

1 person found this helpful

Basic stuff with a little too much of look at me

This is all obvious stuff. Sadly I learned nothing new and I could certainly teach this VP a thing or too.

Great take on management

Michael is clearly an experienced manager and it shows. I found his take refreshing.

In this book, the author focuses on his own personal experience as an engineering manager. He has some interesting ideas around what a manager does, how to do it and pitfalls to watch out for.

A nice supplement to all the technical project management books you have been reading

Witty and useful in everyday application

This book is one that I have back on my list to read again. It is worth every moment and the wittiness keeps the useful information humorous.

Bargain!

This is NOT the audiobook of “Managing Humans” third edition! I have the original paper version and this audiobook contains only a fraction of the original content! 320 pages in less than 6 hours? Not at all! My original books contains 52 chapters but here we have 34, where are the missing ones？I want a refund, Audible

Boring, basic advice

This advice might be useful for a new manager, but I found it to be pretty basic and obvious advice. The summary made it sound like it was full of funny stories, but I didn't hear any (I gave up after 14 chapters). Overall it boring to listen to.

Can relate it to my current career decision

A few chapter that I Can relate it to my current career decision. Recommend this book.