The following dialogue is excerpted from Chapter 16 of “Becoming a Technical Leader”, by Jerry Weinberg (warmly recommended). It has been edited out of the post Kaj Sotala and I are working on, but I think it’s worth having it somewhere around.
Some background: Jerry is interviewing Edrie, a (presumably somewhat fictionalized) senior woman engineer at a client of his. Edrie has just butted horns with a male peer over his conception of what makes a good technical leader: “we have nothing against competent unmarried women, like you, but...”. But upon finding herself alone with Jerry, Edrie acknowledges that her colleague does have a point, taking Jerry somewhat by surprise.
J: “Why do you think fathers are such good leadership material?” [...]
E: “That’s easy. It’s a matter of power conversion”.
J: “Power conversion?”
E:”Yes, you know. The ability to convert one form of power into another that you value more. Like converting water power from a stream into electric light for your house.”
J: “What does that have to do with married men being better leaders?”
“Well, in this country, married men have an advantage over single men. They have power over a woman, which they convert into services that support them in their work. Single men have much more work to do just taking care of themselves, so they are at a disadvantage.” [...]
J: “A lot of men would see it differently. They would say that the married woman is converting her sexual power over the man into money power—a guaranteed lifetime of support.” [...]
E:”There’s no contradiction in both people using power at the same time and converting it into something they both want more.”
High—pretty much everything Jerry Weinberg has ever published is golden. It comes in roughly two main categories—things you ought to read if you want to pursue a worthwhile career in software, and things you ought to read if you want to be a manager or leader. There is some overlap, but this book falls squarely in the second.
The following dialogue is excerpted from Chapter 16 of “Becoming a Technical Leader”, by Jerry Weinberg (warmly recommended). It has been edited out of the post Kaj Sotala and I are working on, but I think it’s worth having it somewhere around.
Some background: Jerry is interviewing Edrie, a (presumably somewhat fictionalized) senior woman engineer at a client of his. Edrie has just butted horns with a male peer over his conception of what makes a good technical leader: “we have nothing against competent unmarried women, like you, but...”. But upon finding herself alone with Jerry, Edrie acknowledges that her colleague does have a point, taking Jerry somewhat by surprise.
J: “Why do you think fathers are such good leadership material?” [...]
E: “That’s easy. It’s a matter of power conversion”.
J: “Power conversion?”
E:”Yes, you know. The ability to convert one form of power into another that you value more. Like converting water power from a stream into electric light for your house.”
J: “What does that have to do with married men being better leaders?”
“Well, in this country, married men have an advantage over single men. They have power over a woman, which they convert into services that support them in their work. Single men have much more work to do just taking care of themselves, so they are at a disadvantage.” [...]
J: “A lot of men would see it differently. They would say that the married woman is converting her sexual power over the man into money power—a guaranteed lifetime of support.” [...]
E:”There’s no contradiction in both people using power at the same time and converting it into something they both want more.”
Is that high endorsement or medium endorsement?
High—pretty much everything Jerry Weinberg has ever published is golden. It comes in roughly two main categories—things you ought to read if you want to pursue a worthwhile career in software, and things you ought to read if you want to be a manager or leader. There is some overlap, but this book falls squarely in the second.