Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World by Stuart Diamond[1].
I didn't actually enjoy reading it - it's written in a pompous, braggy way that struck me as over-the-top even for a business book. However, the negotiation and communication tools it explains have been really helpful both at work and in my personal life.
I really liked "The Effective Engineer" by Edmond Lau. Its not intended for starting your own company. But it has some good insight for doing good in your job and how to grow as a software engineer.
https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Engineer-Engineering-Dispro...
Contrary to the self-help nature, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life" has a set of somewhat structured ideas on how spending time/attention a bit more selective and sometimes going deep instead of broad gives you a better return on your efforts.
Say you're in a position where you can work on any aspect of a project, in any language, framework, SDLM, and with whoever you want. Some advice would be to learn new things all day long, but if you do that 100% of the time, you end up with a lot of nothing. Diversity is good, but not at the expense of in-depth knowledge, just like change is good, but change for the sake of change doesn't really do much by itself. Doesn't mean you should stagnate all development of course ;-)
As with all books on ideas and processes: it's just ideas someone else wrote, take what works, leave what doesn't work.
Is this serious? I'm hard put to imagine anybody who doesn't get paid to do philosophy (or at least have regular access to such a person) getting anything out of this book.
"Never split the difference" has made a huge difference for my communication style.
Reading that book represented a step change in my productivity, because I learned to communicate in a way that better prioritized my tasks. I've read it three times now.
I like that the techniques in that book work even if both parties have read the book -- especially if both parties have read the book.
Some psychological books teach a person to play psychological games, and if both parties have read the book, they both just play games and no communication actually happens. Not so with "Never Split the Difference", the book teaches that simply listening is one of the most effective yet difficult things you can do to get what you want.
Lila - "Enquiry into Morals" (R.Pirsig) .. "good" is a noun.. and MoQ in general, with all the orthogonal layers, and identity being the most basic characteristic of things
probably also C.N.Parkinson laws (of burocracy)... as computing is the ultimate burocracy.
and... Winnie the pooh, and the Little prince. aloud (to a kid probably). Really. esp. if u muse over what u just read aloud..
the little prince is really one of the best books I have ever read about enjoying life while subsequently understanding the decisions I make/Will make/Have made.
- "Team Geek: A Software Developer's Guide to Working Well with Others" http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920018025.do -- Software engineering teamwork a-b-c. I'd love to work on teams where everyone has read this one.
[edit: 2nd edition of "Team Geek" is titled "Debugging Teams"; having read both, no difference which you get]
"Drive" by Dan Pink (or his Ted Talk if you want the short version)
and/or
"Flow: the psychology of optimal experience" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (or any of his other publications as they overlap a lot)
Understanding the psychology behind motivation and productivity is going to buy you way more than most productivity hacks IMHO, and even more helpful if you have to work with people.
If resolving conflict is a skill that you are weak in, this or any book that promotes growth in that area will lead to improved satisfaction on the job for both you and your colleagues.
I found it tremendously useful both in my career (where I can legit say I'm pretty good) and with outside activities like karate (where I'm very early in the learning cycle). It's one thing to tell people they need 10,000 hours to be competent at something, but quite a lot more helpful to explain all the steps along the way.
Here are some books I listened to on Audible in the last year and a half, listing those that I enjoyed the most. Each of these books changed me in some ways, I never thought how much fun it is to listen to biographies and how many lessons there are.
0. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition
1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
2. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
3. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
4. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
5. What Got You Here Won't Get You There
6. The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connection, and Courage
7. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
8. The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over
9. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
10. Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change
11. Thinking, Fast and Slow
12. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
13. Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life
14. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
15. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
16. Sapiens
17. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
18. If you like space: Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery
19. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
20. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
21. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
22. The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
> The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
I need to give this a try again. When I originally read it, it was part of a team activity a decade ago and left unmoderated, so it devolved to everyone being at each other's throats by the end of the day.
Did you manage to absorb the material from Thinking, Fast and Slow by listening to it? I tried to start reading it, went back over lines I didnt understand, reread chapters, and in the end gave up because it was too difficult.
In what ways? From an ethical perspective, books like Orwell's famous 1984 are good reads that can help reflecting on privacy and its implications on societal and individual levels, helping decide on whether or not to participate in produciton of software that is antagonistic to data privacy. Also, Aprender a rezar na era da técnica of Tavares is a contemporary novel that can be useful in a similar vein. So also the Anarchist Banker of Pessoa. Maybe also the A Caverna of Saramago. All these books depict the clash of morality and modernity in some ways, and us as programmers are of a profession that is central to the change of times; thus, our perception of ethics is of immense importance to the furthering of the world.
P.S.: also, given many of us publish open source stuff and write blogs etc., reading some literature will always help regardless of whether the contents are relevant or not. I observe from various past threads and this one that the crowd here really likes sci-fi novels and self-help stuff, and also biographies to some extent; but the rest of literature is not as popular. Certainly many lack the time, but reading a 200-300 page novel in a week or two should still be possible even with a very tight schedule (hint: less driving and more public transport helps, if available).
A basic book on finance or accounting to help you scan over the Annual Reports of companies. Their write-up on finance, product strategies, marketing, sales tactics, pricing, compensation, company valuation, etc can familiarize you with many aspects of creating a viable company on your own.
87 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 158 ms ] threadI didn't actually enjoy reading it - it's written in a pompous, braggy way that struck me as over-the-top even for a business book. However, the negotiation and communication tools it explains have been really helpful both at work and in my personal life.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8095067-getting-more
Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual
The Lean Startup
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
Say you're in a position where you can work on any aspect of a project, in any language, framework, SDLM, and with whoever you want. Some advice would be to learn new things all day long, but if you do that 100% of the time, you end up with a lot of nothing. Diversity is good, but not at the expense of in-depth knowledge, just like change is good, but change for the sake of change doesn't really do much by itself. Doesn't mean you should stagnate all development of course ;-)
As with all books on ideas and processes: it's just ideas someone else wrote, take what works, leave what doesn't work.
A great book to understand the general workings of systems, be they technical or human (including companies, governments, ...)
Very useful to go from plain programming to actually identifiying problems and solving them efficiently.
https://www.amazon.com/SYSTEMANTICS-SYSTEMS-BIBLE-John-Gall-...
But at the same time I totally get what you mean.
Reading that book represented a step change in my productivity, because I learned to communicate in a way that better prioritized my tasks. I've read it three times now.
Some psychological books teach a person to play psychological games, and if both parties have read the book, they both just play games and no communication actually happens. Not so with "Never Split the Difference", the book teaches that simply listening is one of the most effective yet difficult things you can do to get what you want.
probably also C.N.Parkinson laws (of burocracy)... as computing is the ultimate burocracy.
and... Winnie the pooh, and the Little prince. aloud (to a kid probably). Really. esp. if u muse over what u just read aloud..
- "Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook" https://www.amazon.com/Being-Geek-Software-Developers-Handbo...
- "Team Geek: A Software Developer's Guide to Working Well with Others" http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920018025.do -- Software engineering teamwork a-b-c. I'd love to work on teams where everyone has read this one.
[edit: 2nd edition of "Team Geek" is titled "Debugging Teams"; having read both, no difference which you get]
and/or
"Flow: the psychology of optimal experience" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (or any of his other publications as they overlap a lot)
Understanding the psychology behind motivation and productivity is going to buy you way more than most productivity hacks IMHO, and even more helpful if you have to work with people.
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-...
If resolving conflict is a skill that you are weak in, this or any book that promotes growth in that area will lead to improved satisfaction on the job for both you and your colleagues.
https://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learn...
I found it tremendously useful both in my career (where I can legit say I'm pretty good) and with outside activities like karate (where I'm very early in the learning cycle). It's one thing to tell people they need 10,000 hours to be competent at something, but quite a lot more helpful to explain all the steps along the way.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1203186.The_Existential_...
1. "How to win friends and influence people" - Dale Carnegie
2. "The seven habits of highly effective people". - Stephen Levy
0. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition
1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
2. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
3. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
4. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
5. What Got You Here Won't Get You There
6. The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connection, and Courage
7. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
8. The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over
9. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
10. Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change
11. Thinking, Fast and Slow
12. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
13. Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life
14. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
15. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
16. Sapiens
17. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
18. If you like space: Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery
19. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
20. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
21. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
22. The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
I need to give this a try again. When I originally read it, it was part of a team activity a decade ago and left unmoderated, so it devolved to everyone being at each other's throats by the end of the day.
Both of these books helped me immensely when I was down and I think DC's writing style (by examples) is what I found very useful.
http://www.the-niceguy.com/contributors/SurvivalGuide.html
Ask Roberto Rosario why.
P.S.: also, given many of us publish open source stuff and write blogs etc., reading some literature will always help regardless of whether the contents are relevant or not. I observe from various past threads and this one that the crowd here really likes sci-fi novels and self-help stuff, and also biographies to some extent; but the rest of literature is not as popular. Certainly many lack the time, but reading a 200-300 page novel in a week or two should still be possible even with a very tight schedule (hint: less driving and more public transport helps, if available).
Chris was an FBI hostage negotiator. His book takes you through some of his hostage negotiations and demonstrates his techniques.
As a software developer, I "negotiate" all day long from code reviews to getting a promotion. His advice has helped more times than I can count.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-De...