Will Larson

Engineering presents unique challenges to managers. Not only are engineering managers usually picked from those who work primarily with objects, but they also receive little training in the discipline. Having little training reinforces a dynamic where little training material is also available to the next generation. To fill this void, Will Larson provides a succinct introduction to the field. His perspective aims to inform from a systems perspective – that is, by observing how managerial actions impact systems of technology.

I’m personally trying to teach myself engineering management techniques to better relate to the software domain at my work. I don’t have much to say in terms of critique because I feel I lack enough experience to judge this book. Generally, I found the reasoning solid though a bit too concise. I hadn’t encountered all of the problems mentioned, so I didn’t grasp the relevance of all the material. In the audiobook, the numbers in the section headers were read aloud, and I found this a bit distracting. Still, my overall experience was positive.

The topic of engineering management is only moderately understood. No standard primer exists for this discipline, and engineering fields change continually. Based on experiences at software startups, Larson provides several books to explain how to do the job better. Executives, managers, and even engineers themselves can benefit from understanding this field’s problems better.… (more)

This was a book full of good, practical advice. However, in the end it didn't go beyond beyond a collection of loosely related essays on a myriad of topics. I will give it credit for being a set of tips that is targeted at managers of managers in tech, so in that sense it was quite applicable for me.

The book failed for me though because, ultimately, it was a pile of fish and I wanted to be taught how to fish. The author told the reader his approach to handling leadership challenges. I like his approaches! I'd love to work with Larson. Much of what he has can apply in situations I am in. But in the end, I don't really feel like I know anything more how to be the person who figures out what is needed when the information here isn't quite a right fit. I learned lots of facts. I didn't enrich my mental models. This read like a bunch of (very high quality) blog posts structured into a book. From a book, I want something more.

Still, the advice is good, and I went back and forth between two stars and three. What landed me on two stars was structural. The book often would mention concepts and instead of providing even a brief definition of them would refer to an article online. All of the endnotes were just links (with QR codes, which is useful) and didn't even have the title of the article or book linked which can be extremely useful in determining whether or not to go deeper. It was just persistently annoying enough for me to round down instead of up.… (more)