8 Comments

I'd like to read your opinion about

James Stanier (2024) Become a Great Engineering Leader

Cate Huston (2024) The Engineering Leader: Strategies for Scaling Teams and Yourself

David Pereira (2024) Untrapping Product Teams

Expand full comment

Thanks a lot for the recommendations Markus!

I've added all of them to my reading list. I hope I'll get to the first of them soon!

Expand full comment

"The Engineering Leader" by Cate Huston is one of the best books on managing your career (for both IC and managerial careers) that I've read in recent months. (Together with Tanya Reilly's "The Staff Engineer's Paths" and Gergely Orosz' "Software Engineer's Guidebook".) Highly recommended! I only moved from a Principal Engineer role at a scale-up in FinTech to a Lead Engineer role at a big Financial Services company last year. Much of the advice in Cate's book, as well as some of the potential pitfalls, match my own experience.

Similar story with James Stanier's book although this is still "work in progress". (New chapters are still being added until the official release date later this year.) This is targeted more at the Senior Management and CTO/CIO level.

I haven't fully read "Untrapping Product Teams" yet, but so far it's also an enjoyable read.

Expand full comment

Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on "foundations of a productive life that is also well lived"!

Expand full comment

Thanks, added to my list! Stay tuned for a review ( no ETA though as I have quite a few books in the pipeline already )

Expand full comment

Actually, I can't find the book... There are many partial matches though. Who's the author? Do you have a link? Thanks

Expand full comment

Sorry, that's a misunderstanding! I just quoted you from your post about "Slow Productivity". It would be interesting to know how it affected you in your decisions and daily life.

Expand full comment

Sorry, my bad. I naïvely assumed you were answering to the request to suggest more books to read :)

I'm in the process of designing my life around some of those principles.

This is why starting from January this year I left my full time job and I've moved to consulting, mentoring, etc.

It allows me to focus on delivering value where I can, while working less hours. The time I don't spend working I invest it in educating myself - hence the books I'm reading - training, family, etc.

The general direction I'm moving toward is doing less, but better. It's a long journey and I just started.

Hope this helps!

Expand full comment