Stealing the Corner Office
by Brendan Reid · first published 2014
82% recommend18% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A practical guide to office politics and the behaviours that help people get ahead beyond doing good work. Its frank, tactical insight is especially useful for engineers who feel stuck or overlooked.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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This covers a lot of the same ground as Brendan Reid's "Stealing the Corner Office"[1], which gives a playbook for helping stuff like this work in your favour, rather than against you. You fit the profile of what Reid calls the "Smart but Stationary Manager" - a guy who is a lot smarter…
on “Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself” ↗Robert Greene's books: The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, and The Laws of Human Nature. Stealing the Corner office by Brendan Reid Assorted works of Niccolo Machiavelli and Balatazar Gracian. It will be hard to impossible to make transition even after reading these books, but at least you can detect and avoid problems…
on “Public protest against Amazon” ↗Stealing The Corner Office by Brandon Reid was very useful for me. The premise of the book is that there are certain behaviours that you need to exhibit in order to get ahead at work (other than actually doing a good job and producing…
on “Ask HN: Best books for dealing with workplace politics and dishonesty?” ↗…"10x" you need luck, the right mindset, and a the buy-in from management to push others aside and take on the most juicy projects (which is self-reinforcing once management sees you as a "10x engineer"). "Stealing the Corner Office" is a good book on such tactics (although it ostensibly applies to middle-managers).
on “1x Programming” ↗…to do for two straight years. All reviews for two years were "Meets expectations" with a long list of things I should improve. One year ago, I read a book with an abhorrent title but good information "stealing the corner office" I stopped listening to what my manager told me to do and instead I picked up random side projects with little to no perceived business value for my team, spent 10x more time reading code and made commits…
on “Becoming a Better Software Developer: A Handbook on Personal Performance” ↗I recently read Stealing the Corner Office which gives great insight into this. The premise is that incompetent high-level executives exist, so the answer isn't simply hard work. The author doesn't specifically state it but the problem, at least…
on “Talent, luck and success: simulating meritocracy and inequality” ↗…dirty with the office politics. But to me it doesn't sound like that was your plan. It sounds like you're interested in the tech and you stumbled into an absolute mess of a company. Anyways I've heard Stealing the Corner Office is a good book on office politics.
on “Ask HN: How to find an effective career coach?” ↗Aside from Dale Carnegie, I found "Stealing the Corner Office" very useful (despite the cornball title).
on “Ask HN: Resources for introverted devs to learn workplace politics?” ↗The books that have helped me the most have been about office politics and how and why people get jealous and who does well and why. The best book I ever read was “stealing the corner office.” I know people who are naturally intuitive and empathetic. They look at another person and go: “oh she is angry because her cat is sick.” And I go “how the fuxk did you know that?” More normal people…
on “A tale of two teenagers (2023)” ↗…are valued by your bosses etc., and (2) dealing with sub-optimal situations. Rise: 3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, and Liking Your Life https://g.co/kgs/XgaeZa Stealing the Corner Office: The Winning Career Strategies They'll Never Teach You in Business School https://g.co/kgs/Z1AGwB
on “Ask HN: How to find an effective career coach?” ↗…of ammunition. Lean into the punches takes the power away from them. But this requires extreme skill. 4. Blame on others by taking responsibility for their actions This is a technique from the book “Stealing The Corner Office.” You make your manager look weak by taking responsibility for misinterpreting them. “I think I must be responsible because I misinterpreted Manager X when he said Y. I will work with X to clarify my…
on “Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?” ↗