New society Book

I picked this up because I recognized DeMarco's name from one of my favorite business books of all time, Peopleware. This is a fast read'DeMarco meant it to be read by busy managers on a flight'but it's dense with insights. Some of the more memorable ones:

"People under time pressure don't think faster." (50, quoting Lister, co-author of Peopleware)

Productivity of knowledge workers is almost entirely based on the number of days worked, not hours (64)

"The first law of bad management: If something isn't working, do more of it" (80)

"healthy [leadership] involves people leading their bosses, leading their peers, leading those in peer organizations...without ever being granted the official power to do what they're doing" (141)

"acquire trust by giving trust" (152)

... just a small selection of the many gems in the book.

Not only will you recognize many of the bad management processes from projects you've been on, DeMarco does a great job of contrasting bad management with good management (better called leadership). He repeats several times that good management is much more difficult and counter-intuitive, which explains why it's relatively rare.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be part of the healthy, successful company, because you (not someone else) have to make it that way.