Welcome! This is a book club and discussion group for "An Elegant Puzzle", by Will Larson, in summer 2019. It is also an experiment in building temporary community.
The purpose of this group is to read "An Elegant Puzzle" with a group of our peers, and talk about any questions or challenges that come up for you while reading it. Discussion need not be strictly limited to the text; personal stories or anecdotes or questions about engineering leadership or management are super encouraged..
This is not a permanent community. There are plenty of those already. The group is a temporary participatory space that will disperse once we are done reading and discussing the book, around the first week of August.
Starting Sunday, June 16th, we will cover one chapter per week. Every Sunday, I or another moderator will kick off an open thread with some thoughts on the next chapter.
But please start new threads (or fork existing threads) at will. All topics we've covered up until this point are fair game, but try not to drift too far into into upcoming chapter topics.
- Engineers and technical practitioners (mostly senior folks)
- Managers of engineering or other technical teams
- Anyone interested in crafting career paths, building great teams, and developing their own leadership muscles
Please read the Code of Conduct before you join. (tldr don't be a dick, follow Chatham House Rules).
- Can I join?
- Yes. If you want to join, and you aren't an ass, you can join. These guidelines are to help gauge your interest not for gatekeeping.
- How do I subscribe?
- Go to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/elegant-puzzle-discuss and ask to join. Once you have been added, please **send an introductory email** to the list (elegant-puzzle-discuss@googlegroups.com). Aim for 3-5 paragraphs or so -- enough context on who you are, what you do, why you're here or why you care to help people understand what context you are speaking from.
- Can I invite someone?
- Please do! If you know someone who loves thinking and discussing these issues, give them this link. Please don't post it to a broad public audience, e.g. your public twitter feed, but smaller forums where you know and vouch for the readership are fine (like a work list, or a private feed).
- Will the list be moderated?
- Email subscriptions will be moderated, but once subscribed, posts will go straight to the subscribers.
We will cover one topic/chapter per week, on Sundays starting June 16th.
| Date | Chapter | |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-06-09 | Introductions | Invite interested people, introduce ourselves |
| 2019-06-16 | Organizations | |
| 2019-06-23 | Tools | |
| 2019-06-30 | Approaches | |
| 2019-07-07 | Culture | |
| 2019-07-14 | Careers | |
| 2019-07-21 | Conclusion | |
| 2019-07-28 | Farewells. | Wrap up final thoughts, wind down connections |
| 2019-08-04 | Poweroff | @charity disables new postings |
Will Larson was not harmed in the making of this group. Thanks to Cindy Sridharan for agreeing to co-moderate with me.