Books

The Manager's Path Cover I should start a list of books I wish I read earlier. This one would definitely be on that list. Thankfully it is fairly recent, so I don't have myself to blame. Most people that I know in some kind of lead or management role stumbled into them. This was certainly the case for me. One day you are the lone developer in a small shop or start-up and without your fault it does start to grow. All is well until you have a handful of people in the team, suddenly there is a need for some structure and dare I say the word "management". A lot of developers, including myself, are introverts and also prefer the technology side of a company. Taking on the role of a lead or manager will force you to talk to more people and reduces your time on the keyboard. I never wanted to manage people, but working at my start-up (guideguide, war stories another time) I realised that someone had to do it and if I cared for the company it probably had to be me. This is where "The Manager's Path" comes in. It explains the path you might take from being a lone contributor to taking on more responsibilities like mentoring, leading on the technical side, to managing teams and finally being a CTO. It explains every role in great details with real life examples and asks questions to assess your own situation. Even if you are happy to just being a developer this might be helpful to understand the other side and what to expect from your lead. Maybe it also helps to decide that management is not for you yet and you want to learn more about the technology before you take the next step. Or you decide you just are happy where you are and might never go further than on the technical side. I did see myself in a lot of the chapters and wished I had someone tell me these things 20 years ago. Now I will keep it on hand as a reference to look up when I have to reassess roles and help others to grow. While my title is Technical Director at the moment, in the book I am somewhere between manager of team(s) and manager of managers with a sprinkle of CTO. I wonder if there are similar books for other professions, reading this book might be good, but a lot of things are specific to technical careers. A five star from me. ★★★★★ The Manager's Path on Goodreads My random highlights

I am a relatively long user of the Kindle. I got my first Kindle Keyboard in November 2010 and had to replace it twice, once for theft and once because a broken display. I liked it so much that I was never tempted to switch to one of the newer versions. Most of them come with better displays, back-light, are smaller and lighter, but at the same time remove one feature that I especially like: the page turning buttons. Last year’s Oasis changed that, but the weird charging case turned me off. ...

The year comes to a close and it is time to see what happened to my New Year Resolutions. Yoga Everyday Well, this didn't go so well. Overall I managed about every second day, though I have done most of it in the first half of the year. But it turned into a habit now, so I tend to do it a few times a week. Cycling Mini Adventures I managed to do quite a few and had fun doing them. GFNY Barcelona Gran Fondo Mussara La Ruta Minera Tour de France weekend in Andorra Long solo weekend trip around Ripoll Geocentrum 2 and a few solo rides to places around Barcelona Draw something every day This turned out to be pretty much a failure. While it was going good at the beginning of the year I just gave up after a while. It was just impossible to find the time or inspiration to draw. Blog once a month Nearly...this should be number 11 for the year. 12 Books It was a difficult start, but then I found some easy to read thriller series and space operas and ended up reading 23 books. Some more goals ... During the year I picked up a few more smaller goals and habits where I have been more or less successful. I had the cycling goal of reach 8000km for the year and achieve all Strava Climbing and Gran Fondo challenges. But an illness in December made this impossible. So I just got 11 of the 12. I also started to do Vegetarian Mondays with a 64% success rate. I found it difficult when traveling or when there were social events. I worked on my Spanish with Duolingo for most of the year and finished all the lessons. You have to keep it up though so you don't loose it again. And I reached my goal weight. The remaining fat has somehow to be replaced by muscles. Of to the next year... I haven't quite decided on anything yet, but I definitely take it a lot more easy :-)

Half a year is over and it is time to see how my New Year Resolutions are going. Yoga EverydayPretty well I would say. Since I started tracking it with HabitBull I have done it in three of four days. I found it harder when traveling or with days where I have work and evening events. But I am happy with this so far. Cycling Mini Adventures I didn't put a number on this, but I was imagining something like about once a month. I had to cancel the Velothon Berlin because of work. But I did some other stuff. ...

It's that time of the year, when everyone makes empty promises to themselves. And I don't want to skip this important tradition. The last one I did was in 2012, which seems like a long time ago. Usually these are along the lines of sporty stuff or loosing weight. I have already stopped drinking alcohol and coffee end of last year and I am doing two hours of activity (as tracked by google fit) already. And nobody will stop me cycling too much anyway. There are also some things I promise I won't do this year: going vegan, stop gluten intake or low-carb. Still, some of these might be unexpected. ...