Peopleware doesn’t get the love it deserves these days. I mentioned tom demarco to my vp of eng at former gig and they clearly didn’t know wtf i was talking about…

When i was picking up some team lead responsibilities for the first time, it was the first book suggested by my then mentor who was an experienced manager.

Simply to add to this, I found Peopleware useful even in an IC position. It helped me navigate the intrigue that arises in an office, and understand the pressures experienced by my managers.

IDK, I read some reviews about this book and it seemed to be written for a time before remote work. It looked overly worried about office organization and dynamics. Is it true? Because those ideas made ti fall in my priority list form management reading.

> It looked overly worried about office organization and dynamics. Is it true?

No.

[Ed: it is concerned with organizational dynamics - like senior management dreaming up release dates after talking amongst themselves - but they can (and do) do that in closed teams meetings or management/leadership zoom strategy chats...]

There are parts that are outdated like advocating against dress codes or cmm but overall no

Peopleware is in fact the best I've ever read. The problems of an organization are very rarely technical, and are almost certainly the people.

So you're saying they're always people who lack certainty?

Oh you - fixed.