Writing More To Say

Managing Humans, 2nd Edition

Managing Humans Cover I’m pleased to announce the 2nd edition of Managing Humans is now available.

I’ve always wanted to write the preface to the 2nd Edition of a book. To me, a new preface implies that something has both timeliness to it, but continues to have more to say. It’s 2012, five years after the initial publication of the first book and the world of technology and leadership continues to evolve and my hope is the second edition of Managing Humans provides further relevant and timely clarification.

Topics of note to this edition:

  1. I’ve added 14 new chapters. Yes, like previous books, much of this work has already been seen on the blog, but I believe there is a substantive difference to reading these chapters as a collection rather than individually. Some of my favorite articles such as Bored People Quit, Hacking is Important, and The Update, The Vent, and the Disaster are now a part of this book.
  2. Many of the existing chapters have had another editing pass for both errors and clarity. The closing glossary had major editing surgery and remains one of my favorite sources of tweet-sized snark. In related news, I am told that no one knows what a Rolodex is which I find disturbing.
  3. Lastly, several embarrassing chapters are simply gone – I will sleep better at night knowing these poorly shaped thoughts are no longer part of the book.

In the last five years, I’ve changed my stance on remote workers (We have to make it work), I still firmly believe that you need to spend 30 minutes at least with each of your co-workers (It’s the cheapest early warning system you can build), and I increasingly believe the reason you see hackers as CEOs of significant businesses is because the more the hacker mindset infects a company, the healthier the company (And healthy companies survive).

Once more, I’d like to thank the Rands in Repose readers for their continued support. I believe the topics we chew on on this oddly shaped corner of the Internet are increasingly important.

Thank you.

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17 Responses

  1. hey, thanks for a great book that I just bought 🙂

    can’t wait to read it!

  2. Just in case you know, when will this be available on Amazon UK?

    What’s really annoying is that even though there’s a US Kindle Edition, Amazon won’t let me buy it because my Kindle is registered on amazon.co.uk.

  3. As with John, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager [Kindle Edition] is not available in Switzerland.

    Why?

  4. I think you just have to have an account on Amazon.com and pay in dollars. That’s how I buy all my ebooks, although I am located in France and have an European Kindle. I was able to buy the 2nd edition of Managing Humans without any problem.

    Once you have registered your Kindle to a local Amazon website, I am not sure you can go back to this though.

  5. tBunnyMan 12 years ago

    I anxiously await the nook version

  6. So, about those embarrasing chapters… What were they, and why are they embarrasing? If it’s because your views have changed, perhaps that in itself is worthy of an article explaining what your view was, what it is now, and why it has changed?

  7. I would second Eli’s request … I think it would be interesting to hear what you’ve learned and how those things have changed your views … not in a “I was wrong and now I’m right” way, but more of a discussion on how your views have changed over time.

  8. Courtney Bolton 12 years ago

    I couldn’t agree more.

    thanks, @rands

  9. Courtney Bolton 12 years ago

    …”In the last five years, I’ve changed my stance on remote workers (We have to make it work), I still firmly believe that you need to spend 30 minutes at least with each of your co-workers (It’s the cheapest early warning system you can build), and I increasingly believe the reason you see hackers as CEOs of significant businesses is because the more the hacker mindset infects a company, the healthier the company (And healthy companies survive).”

  10. Cool! Any estimate on when an iBooks version would be available?

  11. This couldn’t have been more timely. I’m excited to read the Kindle version on the train today!

  12. Adam Coffman 12 years ago

    I ordered this from Amazon the day this post went up and its great! I’m almost half way through already and really enjoying it. I did want to say though that Apress’ quality control process must be particularly shoddy. I was very disappointed in the printing and construction of the actual book. There are all sorts of spacing and kerning errors in the type. The pages are cut slightly crooked and from about page 147 on the page numbers simply didn’t print.

    None of this takes away from the quality of the content, but its a shame that a good book is marred by such poor construction.

  13. Excellent. I’m off to buy it. I’m always a bit disconcerted about the lack of really good information about being a developer/IT manager. And I don’t care if some of the spacing is off as long as the info is great.

  14. Congrats on the new book! Always love your ideas – given the 30 minutes with each of your coworker question – I would love to hear your thoughts on really flat organizations – how do you do that when you have a team of 18 people?

  15. I am with ELI and SAM. Can we have an article on the blog on what chapters you cut and why? If you changed your thinking I think it’s way worth a post to describe what made you change.

    As a fan of the 1st edition book I am also wondering what got cut.

  16. Patrix 12 years ago

    @Ralph: The Kindle version is available on amazon.de now as well