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drubin87's review
5.0
Such a great read. The 2nd half of the book can feel a little repetitive as it's interviews with different engineers from different companies and many have the same things to say but this just re-enforces the message.
Highly recommended for any senior engineer trying to grow into the next step that isn't keen on Management track.
Highly recommended for any senior engineer trying to grow into the next step that isn't keen on Management track.
emeraldimp's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Very helpful; opened my understanding of why my current role wasn't the same as it had been as our team grew. It also helped me think about and ideate what I ought to be spending my time on (and worry less about what I'm no longer spending my time on)
snpefk's review
4.0
Лучшая книга не про программирование для программиста.
Занимает нишу self-help литературы для опытных операторов ЭВМ, которые не совсем понимают, что со своей жизнь делать дальше, когда все молодые и успешные двадцатидвухлетние CTO и Team Lead от карьерных успехов себе вторую беху покупают, а у тебя не очень-то душа лежит к менеджменту. Для начинающих таких трудов пруд пруди (Joel on Software, The Pragmatic Programmer), а вот для сеньор+ позиций — нет (или я не видел). Наконец-то нашел.
Занимает нишу self-help литературы для опытных операторов ЭВМ, которые не совсем понимают, что со своей жизнь делать дальше, когда все молодые и успешные двадцатидвухлетние CTO и Team Lead от карьерных успехов себе вторую беху покупают, а у тебя не очень-то душа лежит к менеджменту. Для начинающих таких трудов пруд пруди (Joel on Software, The Pragmatic Programmer), а вот для сеньор+ позиций — нет (или я не видел). Наконец-то нашел.
tattdcodemonkey's review
3.0
I really enjoyed this book and it helped rethink work Ive done in the past and work I want to do in my career going forward. For that I found it very useful.
But it also felt unfinished and rushed. The interviews were great source material but should of been left out of the book IMO and without them the final chapter ends quite abruptly. It seems like the structure of the book was a victim of the pandemic and being published before it was really ready.
But it also felt unfinished and rushed. The interviews were great source material but should of been left out of the book IMO and without them the final chapter ends quite abruptly. It seems like the structure of the book was a victim of the pandemic and being published before it was really ready.
mjfmjfmjf's review
3.0
Well huh. That was definitely the best I've ever read on the subject. Or even the best book I've ever heard of on the subject. And if you are thinking this is damning with faint praise, you'd be right. I'm glad this book exists. I wish it were better.
So I recently got the title of Staff Engineer. Actually years ago I was made Member of Technical Staff and Senior Member of Technical Staff. At another job I was Chief Software Architect. But in between those jobs, I've been a Senior Software Engineer for 18 additional years.
So I was curious what people thought the role of Staff Engineer and for that matter Technology Leadership should mean. And the answer was clearly lots of different things.
This book seemed to be primarily based on interviews and in fact the latter part of the book was all direct interview transcripts. And these were not all at the same level of quality or relevance.
One recurring pattern was clearly Impostor Syndrome. Another pattern was writing in such a way that the language was not intended for general use. Mostly it was jargon driven. And of course one of the key missions that everyone agreed on for Staff Engineer was communication.
This book had ridiculous quantities of links and probably would work better reading in a browser on a large monitor. But reading it on a kindle was difficult. First I didn't expect I'd make it through a first read if I even tried to follow the links. And just selecting the next page without touching a link was a pain.
But was there value here? Yes. How to think about this role, how to select someone for the role, what success looks like. These are all important to me and this book is a starting point.
And the next step might be to follow those links. Or network with other Staff Engineers. Thanks Travis.
So I recently got the title of Staff Engineer. Actually years ago I was made Member of Technical Staff and Senior Member of Technical Staff. At another job I was Chief Software Architect. But in between those jobs, I've been a Senior Software Engineer for 18 additional years.
So I was curious what people thought the role of Staff Engineer and for that matter Technology Leadership should mean. And the answer was clearly lots of different things.
This book seemed to be primarily based on interviews and in fact the latter part of the book was all direct interview transcripts. And these were not all at the same level of quality or relevance.
One recurring pattern was clearly Impostor Syndrome. Another pattern was writing in such a way that the language was not intended for general use. Mostly it was jargon driven. And of course one of the key missions that everyone agreed on for Staff Engineer was communication.
This book had ridiculous quantities of links and probably would work better reading in a browser on a large monitor. But reading it on a kindle was difficult. First I didn't expect I'd make it through a first read if I even tried to follow the links. And just selecting the next page without touching a link was a pain.
But was there value here? Yes. How to think about this role, how to select someone for the role, what success looks like. These are all important to me and this book is a starting point.
And the next step might be to follow those links. Or network with other Staff Engineers. Thanks Travis.
darkbackground's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Great information, but a substantial portion is interviews which can become repetitive when reading too much as once.