Recommended with reservations.
This is an experienced industry professional writing his thoughts on the relationships between ‘individual contributor’ technicians and their line managers, who are often the company’s least experienced managers. His self-read audio version runs to 5½ hours, distributed as a 450M zip of MP3s and generally recorded well with a few very minor and easily corrected volume drifts; it would be nice if more books had audio versions like this. My main reservations are some readers will find his advice obvious and there are some places that could do with minor updates from 2021 ‘we’re remote or hybrid in a pandemic’ to 2025 ‘post-pandemic AI-related downturn in developer employment’ (for example, the section on having a manager much younger than yourself assumes you’ve been in one company a long time and says nothing about needing to find a new job in your late 40s or 50s) but it’s generally good. I expect some companies and/or managers might want to buy copies of this book for their people to borrow.
Kousen advises us that managers might be compelled to care more about short-term financial concerns than they do about technical details and individual skill progression; that they appreciate quick replies to what you don’t know with preliminary ideas of what it would take to look into the problem further, but leave the final resource-allocation decision to the manager; and they appreciate ‘I’ve got your back’ loyalty, allowing for some pushback but involving them in the resolution of problems behind closed doors whenever possible, as managers fear trouble. Apply Hanlon’s Razor and assume bad things are not deliberate; avoid vents that can undermine this positive attitude; present work to others in the company as done by the whole team and remember managers treating the team’s achievements as their own is normal. Some find it useful to think using controversial ‘personality type’ models when recognising the different ways individual managers might prefer information to be presented to them, e.g. big-picture first or steps to take first; considering data versus experiencing demos or online videos; preferring to have items checked off as ‘done’ (with clean desk, few tabs and a WIP limit) versus trying new things soon and leaving possibilities open – and, I might add, frustration when organisations don’t budget for ongoing maintenance after something has shipped, which I’m told bothers me because I’m more INTP than INTJ although I don’t think I entirely lack the capacity for F or whatever and before you read these personality-type descriptions you should look up the Barnum effect.
If all the things I just mentioned seem obvious then you can probably skip this book, otherwise you might want to try it.
Website: https://pragprog.com/titles/kkmanage/help-your-boss-help-you/
