What books or other resources do you believe would make your life better, if your present and future managers read them and lived their lessons?
That being said, I think Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an important read for anyone in technology. It changed how I approach and appreciate technology.
You are close, but I think the message is more nuanced than you state (as you guessed). What the book seems to be contrasting is the "romantic" view of something (the emotions it generates) and the classical view (the logic and order of something). This applies to a lot of things in life (cooking, music, programming etc) and the book uses the examples of motorcycles. One person doesn't mind tinkering with his motorcycle because it's part of the "experience" and he finds an emotional appeal to it. The other person only sees the motorcycle as a means to a different experience (traveling) and only cares that it works for their purpose.
The summmary says, "Only by finding the middle ground that accepts both views can a person deal with the frustration and dissatisfaction of everyday life."
I am not sure how finding the middle ground would make me more satisfied with life. I understand cooking has very romantic feelings for some people, but to me it's a chore. I don't have the same experiences, background, and emotional wiring as someone who enjoys cooking, and I don't think I ever will. Understanding that other people like it doesn't make me like it anymore. I guess maybe the point of the book is to try to view things romantically, and giving that view a chance.
Interesting observation! Note that you're describing a correlational study though (and not a randomized controlled trial), so even if you're right it might not help to get your non-reading manager to read... :P
When I started reading the book, it seemed like it was going to justify that lifestyle to me. It's good to tinker and be mechanically aware, you know? I wanted to be like the narrator, he seemed like the pinnacle engineer.
But I just started missing out on things and ignoring people. It clicked for me when I got my first car and when I got in my first accident. I spent so much time keeping this thing in perfect shape, all to be destroyed by some dumb ass maneuver I pulled. After that, I wanted to be more like John. A car is just something to make life happen, it's not a reason to live. Same thing with computers, they're just there to help you out a little, not something to give up your life for.
I guess it was the car accident that really changed how I think about things, but reading the book gave me the language/vocabulary to understand how I felt.
In my case, I'd like him to read Fred Brooks' "The Mythical Man-Month", to make him understand how a programming system costs a lot more than a simple module.
Summary: http://javatroopers.com/Mythical_Man_Month.html
In second place, I'd place "Peopleware", so he'd understand the importance of communications, and how the current office arrangement is losing the company a lot of money:
Summary: http://javatroopers.com/Peopleware.html
Amazon link to both:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythical-Man-Month-Engineering-Ann...
http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Second-...
* The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
* Facts and fallacies of software engineering by Robert L. Glass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Glass
* Lessons learned from 25 years of process improvement: The Rise and Fall of the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory https://www.cs.umd.edu/users/basili/publications/proceedings...
I'm a recent developer-turned-manager [close to two years now] and have always been a voracious reader.
Apart from specialist books of the profession, as an introvert I find that a healthy dose of fiction helps me in my day-to-day dealings with people at the workplace - especially those who report to me.
[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401...] [https://open.buffer.com/reading-fiction/]
^^ As such, I'd recommend some well-written fiction. Try The Godfather - always thought it was the best "people management" book :-)
Fantasy [or novels with a touch of the fantastic] would also be good.
War books are also good. Try some interesting non-fiction - I'd recommend WW II books by Stephen Ambrose. All about teamwork and beats reading dry management books.
You should probably stay away from satire, lest your manager think you a d*ck ;)
Before you do any of this, you should probably find out if your manager is in the habit of reading.
And despite the best advice, what a reader gets from any book depends on what she brings to it...so don't be surprised if reading doesn't help your manager :D
If there's a single book I wish everyone had read - not just managers - it would be this. I'd market it as "manual for human beings". You learn how to deal with them, as well as how to be one.
is good for understanding Devops and constant refocus on business objectives.
This list is heavily skewed toward self-organization because I work for a company (Zappos) that is currently transitioning to a self-organization model. I thought I'd answer the question about what books I wish my "manager" would read even though I don't have a manager because in a self-org environment, you do have leaders that emerge organically. The main difference between "manager" and "leader" is that managers influence their charges with coersion (even if subtle and unintentional) while a leaders ability to influence comes from the bottom-up and is more meritocratic based on perceived experience and ability by those being led.
Most companies hope to promote the leaders so their manager structure is reflective of the actual effective social leadership structure, but all companies get it wrong often.
Software engineering in particular attracts some extreme personalities. There are elements of narcissism, OCD, borderline, avoidance, etc. in every organization, even if it would not necessarily warrant a diagnosis. People have irrational motivations. This is often ignored in the rational business of software.
That page doesn't do it justice, sadly. This book just gets it about working in teams and larger organizations.
You'll hear something many managers need to hear about the difference between a "priority" and just something you need to do and the resources you need to be putting behind something to really show that it's a priority (owner, budget, deadline).
http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Product...
Unfortunately, I read this book when it was too late for me, but definitely something to read if you ever get into management. The politics section itself is worth the price:
Newer Stuff: Nine Stories (Salinger), The Razor's Edge (Maugham), Nausea (Sartre), Siddartha (Hesse), Road to Serfdom (Hayek), The Book (Watts), Design of Everyday Things (Norman), Atlas Shrugged (Rand), Invisible Man (Ellison), Debunking Economics (Keen), Blood Meridian (McCarthy), The Center Cannot Hold (Saks), This Time Is Different (Reinhart/Rogoff), Infinite Jest (Wallace), Calvin and Hobbes (Watterson)
All of these books are well written and have given me some perspective on interesting people/situations/ways of thinking.
Flat Army - Dan Pontefract [2]
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Needs-Mentor-David-Clutterbuc...
If we choose to bog down the process, add unnecessary steps, or shortcut some steps, the end result is perhaps less rewarding.
Phenomenal modern look into the practice of alternative analysis
I'm not great at math but I do at least know how to remove the tax from a number.
The second book would be Turkish. so that he wouldn.t wrte like ths in his Emails
http://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-Amazing/dp/0399144...
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Four-Days-Dr-Deming-Management/dp/0201...
Not everyone is suited to, or wants to be a manager. That doesn't mean that we haven't learned about management in our careers. And I do think we all can learn from everyone around us.
Atlas Shrugged's Taggart Transcontinental is the company I wish I could work for. I hate the nitpicking and bad attitude that I currently deal with. I took this job to write code and make money, why do I have to go to all these stupid meetings, read these stupid e-mails, use Slack, answer this stupid desk-phone etc?
'Going to work' is what is killing my work, and nothing I say or do seems to matter. I just want to actually get some work done, seemingly unlike the rest of this entire corp.
Give me my keyboard, my editor, and my coffee. That's all I need and I'll write up what I did at the end of the day, talk to me then.
I call that work about work. Most of it's needless.
They say it's to help us get better results, etc, but I think it's really about adding meaning to their work life. Or just to their life.