In our 101st episode, we kick off a new era of episode titles as your best engineer becomes the interim manager of their own team — delegation, one-on-ones, the three-year rule, a visit from Chili Palmer, the Cadillac of minivans salesman himself, and the only question that matters: do you actually want this job? Down… more
I’ve used Claude quite a bit for both the upcoming new book and the next edition of Managing Humans. I wrote the entire book, but, as I’ve done for years, I’ve used the robots for editing, research, and data wrangling. When Anthropic announced they were going to do “text and image” watermarking, my eyebrow was… more
Remember Manager Readmes? The idea was that a manager would take the time to write up their leadership style, what they valued, and their principles. A fad that started in 2017, hit its peak in 2018, and then faded.1 I wrote one in March 2018 and enjoyed the process, but while I published mine, I… more
In our 98th episode, we list the things we’ve been building with our robots and figure out who we’re really yelling at when it all goes wrong. Mentioned, referenced, or obsessed over: Planetfall, the Infocom game that gave Floyd his name Rands Leadership Slack Managing Humans Railway Supabase Bear Ghostty Cory Doctorow on centaurs and… more
Just in time for Christmas, I’m happy to announce the 4th Edition of Managing Humans. It appears that four years is the sweet spot for new editions of this book. The process of getting this edition out the door was the least painful of the four unless you factor in, ya’know, the pandemic. Edition notes:… more
An inability to ask for help is not the domain of introverts. We certainly make it a more laborious mental process, but in any group of humans where there are those who know and those who are learning, the latter population is hesitant to ask for help because they don’t want to appear dumb to those who have clearly figured it out.
The promotional site for Managing Humans still makes me smile. The photos were from a part of the property we call the Fairy Meadow. It’s a horse chestnut tree surrounded by a stream that only runs during the rainy season. We return to the Fairy Meadow for the third book. Thanks to my good friend… more
In our ninth episode, we discuss the idea of Manager READMEs, vulnerability in the workspace, how Toyota empowers its humans, and how much Rands detests drama. Enjoy it now or download for later. Here’s a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes.
I am, once again, very happy to announce the publication of another edition of Managing Humans. It’s been over four years since the last update to this book, and I’m shocked we’re still talking about it. As with each edition of these books, there are topics of note: I’m three for three on absolutely hating… more
I’ll have more to say about this topic later this week1, but the third edition of Managing Humans is out there. I updated the now rather silly site which first promoted the first edition of the book. Briefly:
You can buy them in a variety of formats right here.
