Hacker turned manager?

7 points·cardmagic··5 comments

I have been a hacker for over 14 years. Recently, the company I am working at has been on a hiring spree which has led to me managing more people than ever before. Have any of you gone through this transition successfully? Are there web tools or books that are particularly helpful?

View on HN

I suggest "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams" by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, as well as "Managing Humans" by Michael Lopp (or read his blog Rands in Repose, full of thoughtful geek-oriented essays on managing software teams and navigating organizations)

There was a talk at The Last Hope entitled "From a Black Hat to a Black Suit - How to Climb the Corporate Security Ladder Without Losing Your Soul"

16 kbps: http://www.thelasthope.org/media/audio/16kbps/From_a_Black_H...

64 kbps: http://www.thelasthope.org/media/audio/64kbps/From_a_Black_H...

I found Amit Rathore's essay 'Against all Oddities' to be very helpful in bridging the gap.

http://epistemologic.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/againstoddi...

I've done it but I hated it.

Never again. I have a standing agreement with my business partner that if we ever find ourselves in the position of having to hire people that she will take care of that end. I really am not the right person for it.

I enjoyed Rapid Development from Steve McConnell for giving me some vocabulary and back bone when I needed to manage up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com