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Summary of Books I Read in 2023
It's already been a month since the New Year started, but I'm going to put together a rough summary of the technical books and EM-related books I read in 2023.
SOFT SKILLS
This book was packed with knowledge useful for a programmer's career. In particular, it was a book with many insights, such as the "learning through play" approach, the importance of understanding the volume of work, and how breaking down tasks helps you realize when information is missing.
Time Management of Top 5% Employees Revealed by AI Analysis
There was plenty of immediately applicable knowledge, such as how sighing actually has a positive impact on brain function and mental stability.
Software Engineering at Google
A massive work of over 600 pages, condensing Google's engineering expertise. I particularly resonate with Hyrum's Law after maintaining systems for a long time. It's definitely worth re-reading.
With a sufficient number of users of an API, it does not matter what you promise in the contract: all observable behaviors of your system will be depended on by somebody.
Effortless
A book to learn how to achieve results with minimum effort through efficient action. It's close to the thinking of Agile and Lean, but the fact that it takes a certain amount of effort to become effortless is quite a paradox...
This is Lean
A book where I could learn about the importance of shortening lead times and what to focus on to improve flow efficiency. I want to avoid increasing unnecessary work.
Agile Metrics
Introduces specific methods for obtaining metrics that help in team improvement. My impression was that the difficulty of practical implementation is relatively high.
Yahoo's 1on1
You can deepen your understanding of the purpose and key points of 1on1 meetings. After reading this, I started (I think) making a conscious effort to intentionally refrain from giving my own opinions.
How Google Works
Emphasizes Google's culture and the importance of "smart creatives." The part where it says the 20% rule is actually a 120% rule was, when you think about it, quite relatable.
How to Raise Self-Reliant Children: Revealed by Latest Brain Research!
This book was recommended during management training, and its content is applicable not only to parenting but also to employee development. Maybe it's about time I properly learn about metacognition...
OKR
A good book for understanding the overview of OKR. Since I read it during a time when I was struggling with personnel evaluations, I also wanted to know about its relationship with those evaluations.
"Ambiguity" and "Satisfaction" in Personnel Evaluation
The message that one should focus on building a relationship of trust between the evaluator and the evaluatee, rather than just eliminating ambiguity in evaluation, came through strongly. It was a book that made me rediscover the importance of daily feedback.
It might have been the best book I read in 2023.
KPI Management for Achieving Best Results
The key points in setting KPIs were clearly presented, providing content that is useful when actually creating KPIs.
Management Works Better When You Don't Try Too Hard
A book that teaches the importance of relaxing and not overstraining yourself. Let's take it easy.
God Motivation
It explained how to utilize "gap motivation," but I felt that putting it into practice would be difficult.
Modern Software Engineering
The argument that just writing code is not engineering left me speechless. Maintainability is crucial.
Practical Monitoring
A systematic and compact summary of monitoring that was very easy to read. I highly recommend it as a perfect introductory book.
Dialogue: The Communicating Organization
I understood the importance of dialogue, but I wish it had more specific details on how to root it within an organization.
Introduction to Design through Good and Bad Code
The criteria for distinguishing between good and bad code are clearly presented, which is helpful during code reviews. It also touches upon organizational culture for designing good code, which seemed useful for organization management.
Growth Theory for Rookie Managers
I read this while empathizing with the challenges I face daily as a new manager. While there seem to be many challenges to tackle, the phrase "the era of section manager crisis" made me feel a bit relieved. It was a book that eased my sense of isolation by showing me that many managers struggle with the same things.
Introduction to Prometheus
This book is packed with comprehensive information about Prometheus and gives the impression of being suitable for use as a reverse reference.
Everyone Can Move People! The Leadership Revolution That Will Change Your Life
It emphasized that in order to demonstrate leadership, one needs to clearly be aware of the desire to achieve something and be prepared to train their mentality against stress. I might have had some doubts about whether it truly applies to "everyone."
How to Make Yourself "Good-Humored"
The book pointed out key factors for maintaining a good mood. I felt that knowing the brain's tendency to "automatically attach negative meanings" makes it easier to control one's own emotions.
Search Inside Yourself
I read this because I had previously participated in a mindfulness workshop. By the way, I haven't been practicing mindfulness lately...
Agile Leadership
For leaders aiming for an agile organization, this book was full of hints on mindset and practice. I realized once again that there are no shortcuts, and it is important to have the courage to reach out to the team and engage in repeated dialogue.
A Thinking Method that Connects Intuition and Logic
A book that advocates the importance of "margin" (blank space). I remember there were many points I could relate to, such as the idea that good ideas don't easily come from places where there is no temporal leeway (≒ margin).
Agile Development and Scrum
Many real-world examples of agile development were introduced, which helped deepen my understanding. The discussion of the Scrum paper in Part 3 was particularly interesting and was a point that differentiated it from other agile-related books.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
It was a common story about focusing on what's important and deciding "what not to do."
The Product Manager's Job
Practical content about product management is packed in right from the beginning. There's so much content that really hits home. The checklists at the end of each chapter were particularly useful, and I felt like everyone involved in product development should read it. Highly recommended.
Illustrated Introduction to Goal Management
MBO (Management by Objectives) is explained in plain terms, but on the other hand, my impression was that there was little practical content. Well, it might be that practical content can't be written because goal management varies so much depending on the organization...
Introduction to Management for Engineers
Management knowledge for engineers is summarized, but the content was more difficult than I expected. Personally, I would recommend "The Work of an Engineering Manager" more.
The Communication Problem Map
It breaks down communication problems like a map, clarifying where specific issues lie. It was also useful for identifying challenges within my own organization, and it was a book with much to learn just by looking at the map.
Summary
In 2023, I read 31 books. (In addition to these, I read a few books on parenting.)
Since there were many EM-related books, I'd like to increase the proportion of technical books in 2024.
Also, ChatGPT is really convenient. This article was completed just by roughly feeding it tweets of my impressions after reading the books and making minor adjustments to the generated content.
The tweets are stored in Notion using the mechanism below, which is convenient for easily filtering and downloading only the relevant tweets.
Discussion