Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

Written by Michael Lopp

Narrated by T.J. Johnson

Read hilarious stories with serious lessons that Michael Lopp extracts from his varied and sometimes bizarre experiences as a manager at Apple, Pinterest, Palantir, Netscape, Symantec, Slack, and Borland. Many of the stories first appeared in primitive form in Lopp's perennially popular blog, Rands in Repose. The Third Edition of Managing Humans contains a whole new season of episodes from the ongoing saga of Lopp's adventures in Silicon Valley, together with classic episodes remastered for high fidelity and freshness.

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 amid the general craziness of dysfunctional bright people caught up in the chase of riches and power. Scattered in repose among these manic misfits are managers, an even stranger breed of people who, through a mystical organizational ritual, have been given power over the futures and the bank accounts of many others.

Lopp's straight-from-the-hip style is unlike that of any other writer on management and leadership. He pulls no punches and tells stories he probably shouldn't. But they are magically instructive and yield Lopp's trenchant insights on leadership that cut to the heart of the matter-whether it's dealing with your boss, handling a slacker, hiring top guns, or seeing a knotty project through to completion.

Writing code is easy. Managing humans is not. You need a book to help you do it, and this is it.

You'll learn to: lead engineers, handle conflict, hire well, motivate employees, manage your boss, discover how to say no, understand different engineering personalities, build effective teams, run a meeting well, and scale teams.

Who This Book Is 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ascent Audio
• Release date: May 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663727930

Michael Lopp

Michael Lopp is a veteran Silicon Valley-based engineering leader who builds both people and products at historic companies such as Slack, Borland, Netscape, Palantir, Pinterest, and Apple. When he's not deeply concerned with staying relevant, he writes about leadership, bridges, superheroes, and humans at the popular weblog Rands in Repose. This is the way. Michael also rides bikes which each have names, wonders about semicolons, drinks red wine, and tries to understand how forests work amongst the redwoods of Northern California because curiosity is how you grow.

Reviews for Managing Humans

[scottjpearson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Software engineers stereotypically have the personality type to stay behind their desks and not socialize too much. Their coding skills, so the story goes, facilitate their contribution to the company, not their finessing of humans. However, if they are ever promoted to a manager, they quickly have to pivot to understanding how to get their needs from subordinates who don’t always seek after managerial social approval. Not everyone is successful with this transition, but once they’ve read Lopp’s book, they can’t say that they aren’t aware of its inherent challenges.For almost two decades, Lopp has worked in Silicon Valley for companies like Borland and Apple along with start ups. He has worked both as a developer and a manager of developers. He explains that coding is the easy part of his skillset compared to managing humans. In this book inspired by his popular blog (RandsInRepose.com), he shares insights from his experiences to others interested in the management of software engineers.Managing Humans is not a textbook of concepts or principles, but rather more of a memoir of management that dives into ideas. As alluded to in the subtitle, Lopp possesses a dry wit that brings out human in nuances of human behavior. Each chapter seems to be built upon a core blog post and thus is simultaneously concise and direct. Nothing he says struck me as particularly groundbreaking, but to those used to the stability of a computer, insights about human relationships can be difficult to access. Reading Lopp can address those deficits of skills.I listened to this book as an audiobook while I drove around. That practice suited this book fairly well. I’m not sure I would recommend to read it as work of print because the blog-like tone makes it not intellectually weighty enough to carry a central idea through to completion. It’s more of a devotional for software engineers. Indeed, its audience seems limited only to those in the IT industry. Managers and aspiring managers will benefit the most, but all software developers can enhance their people skills by these tales. Plus, they’re just plain entertaining to listen to!

[hjvanderklis_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Managing Humans - Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager, veteran software developer and manager Michael Lopp serves you the must-read a-typical management or leadership book. No models, theory only, or success stories here, but raw, personal stories on engaging nerds and managers in the conception, development and delivery of software products. If you consider yourself a project manager, team lead, software development manager, program manager or engaged in software projects, read this one along with other books and courses on leadership and management to tickle you en enrich your potential. In 44 short stories you'll learn how to lead geeks, detect nerds and conflicts, how to say no, manage your (own) boss and hire well. You'll discover what's the necessary core part of a resumé, how you can prepare a phone screen or your next meeting. Lopp's straightforward writing style, will make you smile and frowne on recognizing real-life situations and persons, humans by the way. The book covers handling conflict, time and features, the not-invented-here syndrome, both the dinosaur type software as well as the rookie project managers enthusiastically get trapped in the pitfalls we all create every single day. Personality types, buzz words, the crazy world of Silicon Valley or any software developer's cubicle around the world need your attention. Lopp's weblog and second book will help you build a lasting and more useful engineering culture. Writing code is easy. Managing humans is not. 18 chapters on the management quiver, 9 on the development and managerial processes and 15 on the people and roles involved in this all will help you.

[chsbellboy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great book by Michael Lopp. With the bits of wit and humor typically expected in his work, "Managing Humans," provides an entertaining look at aspects of managing others in the software industry.

[arturotena · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Written in a conversational, spicy and sometimes profane language, this enjoyable book exposes the insightful lifetime conclusions of his author about Software Engineering Management. If you are searching for a formal study on that subject, search elsewhere. While you read this book, you will identify to yourself with the fictional reality-based cases presented here, and you will find practical advices on how deal with them.For new managers, this book will serve as a scenic-view of what to expect in the hardly recognized job of management in a software develop team. For old managers, this book could well save their careers, as expose some elemental but common mistakes done while they are trying to guess what is his position on his organization chart.After the first two boring chapters, the chapter 3 advice how to deal effectively with a freaked-out member of your team. The information on the next five chapters, about meetings, mandates, information flow and hard-to-understand language, are somewhat generic to management, but it is good they are exemplified using Software Engineering cases.I liked the practical chapter 9, where the author reveals his opinion on his own "Stop coding" previous advice for managers. Then, progressively explain why "Do not stop coding" is a better advice.More reviewed chapters to come...