Great books are rare in an age where everyone and their dog can publish. An elegant puzzle is such a gem. The book is a collection of blog posts from Will Larson about the career of an engineering manager. The engineering manager position is the first-level manager-of-managers in a tech organization. And from my personal experience, it was also the level where all the skills that got me there became useless. I was left to my own intuition and good old trials and errors in my first few years on the job, with little mentorship because it was a startup. In Vietnamese, there is a saying that "Failure is the mother of Success". And though I have had some limited successes over the years, I didn't, and still don't, want to meet many of their mothers. No joke intended obviously.
The book was out in 2019 and I only learned about its existence this year, 2024. Halfway through the book, it had already won my acclaim. Had I known some of the topics in it back when it was published, I would have avoided mistakes that still haunt me to this day.
Without delving into specific examples, some knowledge I find particularly inspiring in this book includes:
- The two most important managerial for an engineer are: making technical migrations cheap, and running clean reorganizations.
- In the event of a reorganization, changing the scope of a team is easier than changing the team members.
- People easily and understandably mistake growth in size for growth in impact and mastery. Growth in size has more to do with a company's growth than individual level.
- Drafting policy is important. Once done, it is crucial to avoid undermining your work, and yourself, with exceptions.
That is to name only a few. Some might sound silly to you. And that's good, you are already better than I was when I started my path. I am still pretty at my craft, to be frank. Books like this, they help.
