An Elegant Puzzle
by Will Larson · first published 2019
68% recommend28% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Practical, concise handbook on engineering management that treats org problems as systems, with tools for specific challenges like team sizing and goals. Suits new managers, CTOs, and leaders of growing orgs.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
There's a saying that people don't leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions of complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams, and, ultimately, the success or failure of companies. Will Larson's An Elegant Puzzle orients around the particular challenges of engineering management--from sizing teams to technical debt to succession planning--and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience a
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…like this have some value some times. But if you clicked on it because you're new to EM and keen, here are a few books that are much more helpful IMO: - The Manager's Path, by Camille Fournier - An Elegant Puzzle, by Will Larson - Team Topologies, by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais - Thinking in Systems, by Donella Meadows - Also see: references cited in the above and other works by same authors Disclaimer:…
on “Engineering Management” ↗1. "An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management" by Will Larson. His blog & "Staff Eng" posts are helpful as well. https://lethain.com/tags/staff-eng/ 2. "The Phoenix Project", "The Unicorn Project" (novels), and…
on “Ask HN: What makes a good technical leader – any recommended books?” ↗An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson was very interesting. It's a bit of a handbook and you don't necessarily have to read it cover to cover but instead you can dive into whichever section that is relevant for you at the moment:…
on “Ask HN: What makes a good technical leader – any recommended books?” ↗An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson: https://press.stripe.com/an-elegant-puzzle
on “Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?” ↗If you like this, I can only recommend Will Larson’s (the author of the blog post) book called “An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management” published by Stripe Press. It a collection of very tactical things of how to think about engineering careers and managing others.
on “Career levels, designation, momentum, etc. (2018)” ↗Will Larson's An Elegant Puzzle is the best book on management specifically tailored for engineering managers. I find most management books to be useful in terms of thinking about general people management. I had takeaways from An…
on “A reading list for new engineering managers” ↗My current box of books that I recommend to new managers on my teams: Technology Specific: * An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management (Will Larson) * Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and Devops: Building and Scaling High Performing Teams (Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim) * Team…
on “A reading list for new engineering managers” ↗https://jaymeedwards.com/ provides some good content on his Youtube channel https://www.amazon.ca/Elegant-Puzzle-Systems-Engineering-Man... helps to understand managing from an engineering perspective To understand some of the history and context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-BOSpxYJ9M A bit dated but still…
on “Developers can't fix bad management (2020)” ↗Architectural perspective: Clean Architecture: A Craftsman’s Guide to Software Structure and Design https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/clean-architecture-a/97... Organizational perspective: An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management by Will Larson https://press.stripe.com/an-elegant-puzzle
on “Ask HN: Best books on managing software complexity?” ↗I found "An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management" by Will Larson quite good for advice on practical management challenges one comes across in technology companies.
on “Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?” ↗…hyper-relevant content (the sand to fill the in-between spaces filled up by big philosophies and principles), I've found Will Larson's blog (https://lethain.com/) and book (https://press.stripe.com/#an-elegant-puzzle) to be really useful. It provides tools for solving specific problems, and a language to discuss what's going wrong and what the solution looks like. https://lethain.com/durably-excellent-teams/ The…
on “Ask HN: What makes a good technical leader – any recommended books?” ↗Thanks for the mention! On top of the books mentioned in the article, I would really advise you to read Will Larson's Elegant puzzle
on “Ask HN: What are some good books for a new CTO to read?” ↗You read Will Larson’s book, didn’t you? Over here talking about logarithmic functions of headcounts and what not :P For those that haven’t, or if my respondent hasn’t: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Puzzle-Systems-Engineering-Ma... It’s no holy grail of engineering management, but what it _is_ is a well sourced book of “starting points”. Nuggets of thought. None of them really complete, a good deal wide,…
on “What Makes a Great Product Manager” ↗…It's even a bit insulting that it's targeted at engineers, furthering the narrative that engineers are bad communicators. Much better books in this space are "The Making of a Manager" by Julie Zhuo and "Elegant Puzzle" by Will Larson. Both very insightful and actionable. The latter is a bit dense though.
on “An incomplete list of skills senior engineers need, beyond coding” ↗…at work, common disruptions at work leading to not being able to work deeply. And much more. Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization by Scott Barry Kaufman Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson Inspired / Empowered by Marty Cagan Build What Matters by Ben Foster High Output Management by Andy Grove The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker Much by Cal Newport (Deep Work /…
on “Work Stress: How the 42% Rule Could Help You Recover from Burnout (2020)” ↗