Michael Lopp

Michael Lopp is the person behind the blog 'Rands in Repose', which explains the blog-like feel of this book. It may be presented as if it's a coherent guide to a career in the software industry. But it's clearly just an edited collection of articles on topics related to career, career management, and a management career. This is not really a weakness, but it's not always a strength, either. The book sometimes lacks flow.

A bigger weakness is that few of the articles really lead to any conclusion. Most will get you thinking about your own career or situation. This is good. Some also make solid suggestions for how be successful. This is better. But not all do. And even those that do are most relevent within the specific context of California's Silicon Valley during the first decade or so of the 21st century. In an industry that's always changing, career management is just as volatile.

The strength of the book comes in the voice of the author, Michael Lopp or Rands. He strikes a friendly, beleaguered tone that helps the reader identify with the situations and with the nuggets of advice being offered. Even though the advice is often more implied than spoonfed, I think most software developers will find something in here to help them in their working life, whether they are an individual contributor or a manager (or on their way to being a manager). Just read with a your own good judgement intact and use the articles as jumping off points for personal reflection.… (meer)

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!… (meer)