Books That Shaped My Last Year

I thought I'd share with you some books that shaped my view of the world in the last year (2010 - 2011). It's not only the book that mattered, it's also the moment when I read it so, here is my personal perspective:

Most mind-shifting: 

	Agile programming philosophy. Emphasis on intrinsic software quality. Test driven development. Shows what it means to be a professional programmer and to see your profession as a form of art that you have respect and dedication for. Continuous improvement. I read this book in a period of soul searching, while coding for HAWX 2, few months after SH5 release. It really got me thinking about how to build intrinsic quality in our products and how to support my colleagues to not compromise when it comes to "clean code" and bugs. Here on Amazon
	Probably the best management book I've ever read. Focus on intrinsic quality, continuous improvement, respect for people, engineering led organization - here are the principles. To put it in a few words, "The Toyota Way" is more than management - it's a philosophy of work rooted in a deep respect for the human being - the engineer inside the organization, the customer, the supplier and even the competition. Here On Amazon
	The GROW coaching method. Inspiring. Art of asking the right questions. Trust in people potential. Strong leadership model. I knew before reading this book that imperative management style is not suiting me nor that it produces good results in creative teams. I had no idea, though, on how to proceed. This book gave me a jump-start, courage and a tool to be a more people oriented manager, not only in attitude and mindset, but also in practice. Here on Amazon
	Personal development, personal leadership. From inside-out. Collaboration,Win-Win, Synergy, Proactiveness, End-in-mind, Prioritize, Listen and understand. For me this book meant putting into words a series of unstructured thoughts, patterns, behaviours that I intuitively felt were right but I didn't know how to define or explain them. On the other hand, it helped me understand some wrong behaviours that I had, like not knowing how to act in a Win-Win fashion. Reading it, felt like a big relief. Here on Amazon

Other mind-shifters since September 2010:

• Tribes - Seth Godin 
• In simple words, what it means to be a leader. Am I a leader? Reading this book got me thinking about this question, porting me from yes to no and back several times. 
• The One Minute Manager - Kenneth H Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
• A simple pattern for being a high performance manager.Goal settings, praising and reprimands. A very short must read for anyone (manager or not) - 2 hours at maximum. Has some very funny explanations about the formal appraisals and the average mentality that is so common in corporations. 
• The World is Curved - David Smick
• My introduction to the global world of finances. This book gave me some very cool insights on the current financial crisis and on how the entrepreneurial world is financed and by whom. 
• If You Are Clueless About Starting your Own Business - Seth Godin
• After reading the "The World is Curved", I wanted to know more about entrepreneurship. That combined with my girlfriend working to start her own coaching business, led me to getting this book. It took me through all the steps of starting a small business, from writing a business plan, testing the market, creating a marketing strategy, financing or finding a mentor to selling and growing your business. Short, very insightful, useful both as an overview and as a practical framework to follow when you take the big step. 
• Superfreakonomics - Stephen D. Levitt
• I had fun reading this book. If I were to compare it, I'd compare it to Blink, The Tipping Point and The Outliers by Malcom Gladwell (one of my favourite thinkers and writers) - the same kind of example-based explanations. 
• The Inner Game of Work - Timothy Gallway
• Again coaching, from the creator of professional coaching. More philosophy oriented than "Coaching for Performance" but, nevertheless, a must read. A nice and practical theory about how, sometimes, conscience blocks performance and how coaching can help removing these mental barriers. 
• Clever  - Rob Goffee, Gareth Jones
• I've never had any doubt that truly creative spirits need the resources of the larger organization, a space in which they can prototype their ideas, that they are rebellious and that they hate management for imposing restrictions on them. Therefore the manager should position himself/herself in such a way that he/she can actually provide visible value to his team in order to gain their trust and cooperation. In short, this is what this book is all about, with examples from Google, Microsoft, EA, Apple etc, etc.
• The Myths of Innovation - Scott Berkun
• THE tool to use when the team doesn't know what to do to generate new ideas and everyone is hoping for divine intervention. 

And some literature, for the heart and soul:

• The Fall of Constantinople - Vintila Corbul
• I actually visited Istanbul after reading this book. Absolutely lovely and full of history.
• Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa 
• Quo Vadis - Henryk Sienkiewicz
• The Agony And The Ecstasy - Irving Stone 
• Life of Michelangelo, a deep dive into the mind of a creative and passionate person.

Book Summary: First, Break All The Rules:

The following ideas are not mine but they come from a great management book: First, Break All The Rules (a book based on a Gallup study on what great managers do to be so great)


Key Ideas:
1. The best managers reject conventional wisdom.
2. The best managers treat every employee as an individual.
3. The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths
1. and talent.
4. The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are
2. watching every move they make.
5. Measuring employee satisfaction is vital information for your investors.
6. People leave their immediate managers, not the companies they work for.
7. The best managers are those that build a work environment where the employees
3. answer positively to these 12 Questions:

* Do I know what is expected of me at work?
* Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
* At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
* In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
* Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?
* Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
* At work, do my opinions seem to count?
* Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
* Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
* Do I have a best friend at work?
* In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
* This last year, have I had the opportunity at work to learn and grow?

Creativity and Innovation

This post is a collection of ideas gathered from others, ideas that seem so natural and obvious but many people fail to apply them when it comes to innovation and creativity.

• IDEO: build on ideas of others
• IDEO: stay focused on the problem
• IDEO: you don't have to tell people what to do. give them a great problem and they will do the job themselves
• IDEO: one conversation at a time
• IDEO: don't criticize
• IDEO: encourage wild ideas. You don't get to see the value of an idea first of. You have to live with it for a little bit
• IDEO: listening to your current customers can sometime stop you from being innovative. People are used to tell you what they already have plus a little bit more
• IDEO: start with the user experience and then build the technology to support it
• Sketching on a piece of paper is like brainstorming with myself
• Fail soon to get things done faster
• IDEO: give the user feedback
• IDEO: encourage diversity. As the product complexity increases you need more than one type of specialist: you need psychologists, designers, computer engineers, brand research, graphic artists and a lot more
• IDEO: most great ideas come from small, focused, autonomous teams
• PHILLIPS: focus on people, focus on user experience

Obvious, isn't it?

Steve Jobs Quotes

• A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.

• Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market. What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?

Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

• Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

• Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

• I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we're always trying to do better.

• I want to put a ding in the universe.

• Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

• It is piracy, not overt online music stores, which is our main competitor.

• It took us three years to build the NeXT computer. If we'd given customers what they said they wanted, we'd have built a computer they'd have been happy with a year after we spoke to them - not something they'd want now.

• Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.

• Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

• The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.

• To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.

• Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?

• You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.

Inspiring Game Development Article

How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days:
Tips and Tricks from 4 Grad Students Who Made Over 50 Games in 1 Semester

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml

Quote from the article:
"
Handy Cut-Out List!
Setup: Rapid is a State of Mind

• Embrace the Possibility of Failure - it Encourages Creative Risk Taking
• Enforce Short Development Cycles (More Time != More Quality)
• Constrain Creativity to Make You Want it Even More
• Gather a Kickass Team and an Objective Advisor – Mindset is as Important as Talent
• Develop in Parallel for Maximum Splatter

Design: Creativity and the Myth of Brainstorming

• Formal Brainstorming Has a 0% Success Rate
• Gather Concept Art and Music to Create an Emotional Target
• Simulate in Your Head – Pre-Prototype the Prototype

Development: Nobody Knows How You Made it, and Nobody Cares

• Build the Toy First
• If You Can Get Away With it, Fake it
• Cut Your Losses and "Learn When to Shoot Your Baby in the Crib"
• Heavy Theming Will Not Salvage Bad Design (or "You Can't Polish a Turd")
• But Overall Aesthetic Matters! Apply a Healthy Spread of Art, Sound, and Music
• Nobody Cares About Your Great Engineering

General Gameplay: Sensual Lessons in Juicy Fun

• Complexity is Not Necessary for Fun
• Create a Sense of Ownership to Keep 'em Crawling Back for More
• "Experimental" Does Not Mean "Complex"
• Build Toward a Well Defined Goal
• Make it Juicy!

"

The Pragmatic Programmer - An Exceptional Book

A must-read for any programmer and not only. Doesn't cover a specific technology or programming language but rather focuses on the mindset a true, pragmatic, effective programmer should have. Short, easy to understand, full of clear, concise explanations, tips and quotes.

http://www.pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer

Karim Rashid - Design Your Self

Ever since "Publica" print house published Karim Rashid's "Design Yourself", everyone seems caught up with it. Skeptical at first, saying to myself "yet another book to teach you how to live your life" I took it and started to read. At first, I was impressed by its looks. Glossy pages, colorful, different. Inside? Short and to the point. Urban. Solid and simple ideas about how life is and should be lived, packed in a trendy design, written especially for us, people in the whirlpool of city life. The basic idea the book is constructed upon is that less sometimes means more - how to organize your house, your desk, your shopping list. It also emphases that you should take your life in your hands, not be afraid of challenges and changes, develop yourself and express your personality as you see fit. It may sound like a cliche but the book is well written, short, colorful, full of examples, some of them being quite funny. I had a good time reading it and it also made me think about things that I should change in my life. Good one :)

Note:


Another post on books: Books That Shaped My Last Year (2010-2011)