A human-centric guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt. There’s a saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions for complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams—and, ultimately, between the success and failure of companies. Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle focuses on the particular challenges of engineering management—from sizing teams to handling technical debt to performing succession planning—and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management for leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.

This is an essential book for everyone who wants to write clearly about any subject and use writing as a means of learning.

As lawyers, we must not, in hot pursuit of common law, outrun common sense. The dread of that eventuality prompted this book. Learned Writing promotes common sense in legal language. Plain language, which is commonsensical, broadens access to legal documents, thus democratizing the law. If democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people, law is the language in which government interacts with the people—it is the language of democracy. The people whose government speaks through law must understand what is said. No democratic society should brook legalese, a dense, verbose dialect known only to lawyers. What then should society do to redress the lawyer-induced obscurity? A Shakespearean character had an alarming proposal: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Apparently, that proposal was not enthusiastically endorsed, which explains why we’re still here. A milder remedy—enrolling lawyers in language classes—has been muted, which explains why this book is in your hands. Learned Writing motivates lawyers to prefer plain language to the legalese and verbosity that have besmirched legal writing for centuries. This book is as sweeping a treatment of its subject as you can find anywhere.

Hosier shows academic librarians how to use context when teaching information literacy, an approach that offers a substantive and enduring impact on students' lifelong learning. Librarians know that information literacy is much more complex and nuanced than the basic library research skill that it's often portrayed as; in fact, as outlined by the ACRL Framework, research is a contextual activity. But the settings in which we teach often constrain our ability to take a more layered approach. This book not only shows you how to teach information literacy as something other than a basic skill, but also how to do it in whatever mode of teaching you're most often engaged in, whether that's a credit-bearing course, a one-shot session, a tutorial, a reference desk interaction, or a library program. Taking you through each step of the research process, this book shares ideas for adding context while exploring topics such as how conversations about context can be integrated into lessons on common information literacy topics; examples of the six genres of research and suggested course outlines for each; ensuring that context strategies fit within the ACRL Framework; questions for reflection in teaching each step of the research process; four different roles that sources can play when researching a topic; helping students refine a topic that is drawing too many or too few sources; cultivating students to become good decision-makers for the best type of research sources to use depending on their need; and how to address the shortcomings of checklist tools like the CRAAP test.

“Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson This book is for people who also believe personal freedom is the most important thing in life. In our free world, we can do what want, spend time with people we like, and have a career that gives us joy. And yet, we don’t use our freedom. Why is that? The problem is that we’re held captive by ourselves. On a deeper level, we all strive for the same thing: To be free. It’s in our nature. Every human has the desire and the need to be free. What It Takes To Be Free will lead you on the path to personal freedom. It’s a highly practical guide that’s based on timeless wisdom and personal experience. You’re the ruler of your own kingdom. You can do anything you want, spend time with people you like, and have a career that you love. If you’re willing to do what it takes, you will be free to do those things.

Learning to Write/Writing to Learn provides a basic guide to writing as a way of learning, drawing the reader into an expanded notion of what writing is and how it is created. As you read the chapters, the ideas seem at first only a synthesis of masters like Elbow, Emig, Murray, Graves, Britton, and Moffett. But upon closer look, there is more to the book than a litany of already published ideas. Mayher, Lester, and Pradl use their own means of organization to extend the dialogue to present concerns. The book is like a long description of what a good writing class, writing group, or writing institute can be.

“The perfect recipe for fulfillment, joy, peace, and expansion of awareness.” —Deepak Chopra, MD, author of Metahuman Cultivate hope with strengths-based practices grounded in positive psychology. If you suffer from depression, sub-clinical depression, or low mood, you may have days where you feel like you’ve lost hope—hope that you’ll ever feel better, that the world will be a better place, or that you’ll someday find the happiness that always seems to elude you. You aren’t alone. Many people struggle with feelings of sadness and hopelessness—especially in our difficult, modern world. The good news is that you can change. Learned Hopefulness offers powerful exercises grounded in evidence-based positive psychology to help you identify your strengths; ditch the self-limiting beliefs that diminish your capacity for positivity; and increase feelings of motivation, resiliency, and wellness. You’ll also learn to untangle yourself from rumination over past negative events, while shifting your perspective to the present moment and anticipating your future through a more positive lens. With this unique, compassionate, and life-affirming guide, you’ll find the tools you need to break free from hopelessness and start living a life of happiness and vitality.