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book2019–present

The Making of a Manager

Disciplines:
management & tech leadership

Summary

Julie Zhuo's memoir-inflected guide to management draws on her decade-plus at Facebook, offering honest, specific accounts of the anxieties, mistakes, and growth trajectories of new managers in technology companies.

Core Contribution

Brought authenticity and vulnerability to the management advice genre without sacrificing specificity; provided a relatable first-person account of the engineer-to-manager transition in tech.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • 2019 launch
  • 2020 pandemic remote-management surge
  • inclusion in YC reading lists

Historical Influences

Andy Grove Ben Horowitz Kim Scott

Intellectual Lineage

High Output Management The Hard Thing About Hard Things Radical Candor

Allied Works

The Year of the Looking GlassScope of Leadership essay seriesRadical Candor

Contemporaries & Peers

An Elegant Puzzle Radical Candor The Manager's Path

Minds Influenced

new manager onboarding curricula at tech firmsLenny's Newsletter readership

Intellectual Posterity

Standard reading in tech company new-manager onboarding programmes; influenced the honest management memoir sub-genre.

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