Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager The humor and insights in the 2nd Edition of Managing Humans are drawn from Michael Lopp's management experiences at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, and Borland, among others. This book is full of stories based on companies in the Silicon Valley where people have been known to yell at each other and occasionally throw chairs. It is a place full of dysfunctional bright people who are in an incredible hurry to find the next big thing so they can strike it rich and then do it all over again. Among these people are managers, a strange breed of people who, through a mystical organizational ritual, have been given power over the future and bank accounts of many others. Whether you're an aspiring manager, a current manager, or just wondering what the heck a manager does all day, there is a story in this book that will speak to you—and help you survive and prosper amongst the general craziness. This book is designed for managers and would-be managers staring at the role of a manager wondering why they would ever leave the safe world of bits and bytes for the messy world of managing humans. The book covers handling conflict, managing wildly differing personality types, infusing innovation into insane product schedules, and figuring out how to build a lasting and useful engineering culture. Table of ContentsSection 1: The Management Quiver1. Don't Be a Prick 2. Managers Are Not Evil 3. The Rands Test 4. How to Run a Meeting 5. The Twinge 6. The Update, The Vent, and the Disaster 7. The Monday Freakout 8. Lost in Translation 9. Agenda Detection 10. Mandate Dissection 11. Information Starvation 12. Subtlety, Subterfuge, and Silence 13. Managementese 14. Fred Hates It 15. DNA 16. An Engineering Mindset 17. Three Superpowers 18. Saying No Part 2: The Process is the Product 19. 1.0 20. How to Start 21. Taking Time to Think 22. The Soak 23. Managing Malcolm Events 24. Capturing Context 25. Trickle Theory 26. When the Sky Falls 27. Hacking is Important Part 3: Versions of You 28. Bored People Quit 29. Bellwethers 30. The Ninety Day Interview 31. Managing Nerds 32. NADD 33. A Nerd in a Cave 34. Meeting Creatures 35. Incrementalists and Completionists 36. Organics and Mechanics 37. Inwards, Outwards, and Holistics 38. Free Electrons 39. Rules for the Reorg 40. An Unexpected Connection 41. Avoiding the Fez 42. A Glimpse and a Hook 43. Nailing the Phone Screen 44. Your Resignation Checklist Glossary |