Johnathan Nightingale

Context: I'm an intermediate software developer who isn't actively striving towards management positions, but is interested in both
1. developing himself in his field and his senioriy
2. making his work environment, and from there his world, a more inclusive space.

I'm also a visible minority dude, which is slightly relevant in that I'm somewhere between the audiences that either author is comfortable addressing.

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Anyway, I thought this was a good book in a bunch of ways for my context:
1) It was short, it was concise, each essay in this collection ended with a focused conclusion
2) As a person who is interested in becoming more senior but doesn't have comprehensive guidance on how to be so, this book was really instructive on what people in management (people in management I would gravitate towards) are looking for.
3) Even if I'm not intending to be a manager, part of being a senior at a company (and part of being responsible, and part of being professional, and something I'd like to do for companies I enjoy working in and believing in) is that I should know how and when to step up and contribute my part, even if that means doing low-key leadership things in small day-to-day moments.
4) It's a good introduction to the frameworks of thinking one needs to get into if issues of diversity, accessibility, accomodating people outside my known experience as a single almost-young PoC dude with the things they need and are worried about and value that I'm not necessarily aware of.

I am not a startup employee (I quickly tired of that) and I am not a manager, so in some way I escaped (for now) the central promise of the book, that so many of the seemingly inviolate and glorified values of silicon valley startup culture and the entrepreneur myth are oversold at best and toxic at worst. I imagine, however, that should I find myself in a position of leadership, I will become frustrated that I have been told that the seemingly easy options I could take (and which seem like the paths of least resistance) do not in fact work.

The book is divided into four(?) sections, with the essays in each section revolving around the section's theme. The two authors have consistent, although very different styles, which is somewhat jarring except that it's also clear that they're speaking to different audiences and are speaking from their particular vantages, which are complementary but are clearly two different lived experiences.

The book in many ways was not directly intended for me, which is fine, and in fact the book constantly refers sources closed to subjects the authors want to bring up but don't necessarily feel any authority to speak about with their own voices (issues of being PoC, for example.). I sometimes felt like I was grasping at straws as the book focused on either women in tech, or founders/corporate leaders, or people with who have not ever lived outside the traditional locus of power in north america (affluent local entrepeneurs of european descent), but it was good to see some attempt from people with experience in the nuts and bolts of management (not pure founders, not pure advocates, not people speaking entirely about the particulars of Silicon Valley) speak about their day-to-day work furthering a better corporate world than the horror stories one reads about.
But even with that, a partially illuminated world is better than one completely in the dark. It gives me, an indvidual contributor, tools and indicators to watch for in environments I work at now and those I will consider working at in the future. It gives me at least a starting framework for how I should conduct myself, or at least things I should unlearn or avoid.

I was hoping this book would also spend some time focusing on how to affect change when you do not hold all the control in your grasp, but this book does not really deal with trying to influence your peers or your leadership, but instead focuses on your reports and people who look up (hierarchially or at least in terms of leadership) to you. I felt that was a sorely missing topic in this book, and was my only content-based feeling of disappointment from the book.… (meer)