High Output Management

I'm not in the habit of writing book reviews (who has time for all of the reviews we have to write these days, anyways?), but I feel like this book deserves a few words.

It's simply phenomenal! Sure, it's a bit dated (it was written originally in the 80s and slightly updated in the 90s), but most of the content in it is timeless. The foundational ideas about running a business, building a team, managing a team, etc transcend both time and industries. The only thing that really changes seems to be what's considered a good idea/practice at any given time.

It's really refreshing to read the management playbook of true manager, who has proven himself and the merits of his ideas/beliefs. It's also very refreshing that often Andy admits that there's no recipe for success and all you can do is experiment and see what works best for you. You'll rarely see people as successful as him be so humble and frank about the challenges they face.

The book is certainly not a page turner, but even if you can't stomach all of it I can heartily recommend reading at least Part II (Management is a Team Game) and Part IV (The Players). I enjoyed those parts immensely and I deeply regretted not having read this book years ago. Once I actually read some abbreviated version of the book, but without all the context the ideas simply didn't stick with me.