Name: Get out of your own way
ISBN: 9780399519901

What Hacker News says

o4tunaMar 2013

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne

The Power of TED (The Empowerment Dynamic) by David Emerald

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie

Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior by Mark Goulston and Philip Goldberg

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if you Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith

The New Manual 2.0 by Tripp Lanier thenewmanual.com

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WantonQuantumJan 2024

I hate office politics as much as the next developer. This FT article is a very light "review" of a book called "7 Rules Of Power".

To save you time, here are the 7 rules:

1. Get out of your own way.

2. Break the rules.

3. Appear powerful.

4. Build a powerful brand.

5. Network relentlessly.

6. Use your power.

7. Success excuses almost everything you may have done to acquire power.

"Get out of your own way" means (in this book) that not showing or communicating your worth or value will leave you behind peers who do go out of their way to show their worth and value. I.e., If you keep your head down and just do good work, you won't get noticed.

So, it seems "office politics is not optional" is based on the unstated premise: "if success in the workplace is the only thing you care about."

As for me, I've been a developer for 25 years and never wanted to go into management. I love my job because I love to code and I love learning new things. I'm 100% not the target audience for this book.

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bitwizeJan 2024

> "Get out of your own way" means (in this book) that not showing or communicating your worth or value will leave you behind peers who do go out of their way to show their worth and value. I.e., If you keep your head down and just do good work, you won't get noticed.

The best business advice I ever received came in a dream in which All Might (from My Hero Academia) told me: "If you want to succeed and get recognized at work, you must let your company know: 'I am here!'"

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incomingpainJan 2024

>"Get out of your own way" means (in this book) that not showing or communicating your worth or value will leave you behind peers who do go out of their way to show their worth and value. I.e., If you keep your head down and just do good work, you won't get noticed.

My last job, I was out of the office the vast majority of the time. I was working 50-60 hour weeks.

There wasnt enough time to sell myself to my boss. I did work out of the office with sales guys and the ceo quite often so I did sell to them. They loved me.

I would get back into the office and it was like everyone was caught up in a battle with each other. I tried my best to stay out of it, but you get drawn into that shit so quickly.

Specifically, there was a senior sysadmin who knew nothing about networking at war with the network admin. I was the only other network admin, so naturally I get drawn into it. So I would help out there to help him avoid that conflict. Then on multiple occasions I did the network work, but the other network admin thought the sysadmin did and started saying how bad of a job he did. But it was me...

Then the dreadful day where I was booked 4-6 weeks in advanced and there was work needed to be done. So they brought this other network admin in on my clients. Totally fine with me to have less on my plate. But then I get a phone call from my client telling me the network admin badmouthed me the entire time he was there. I got that recorded, provided it to HR. HR then said they cant just fire him because then I'd be the last network admin and im overloaded with work. They then let me in on something I shouldn't know. He also has another fireable offence being hateful toward a lesbian peer. She was awesome, no idea why he had a fued with her.

So I left the harassment complaint with HR. But like 3 days later my boss who rarely speaks with me comes into my office to tell me that the other network admin went through my tickets and found many problems. I stopped him there, i told him that that other network admin is harassing me, that i'm making it official now and he has to do something about it.

The next morning I got fired.

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imperfectionistJul 2015

I definitely get what you're saying. Thank you, I think reading is going to help me the most, I'll check out those resources and here's links for anyone else:

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield et al. Link: http://amzn.com/1936891026

Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way by Steven Pressfield et al. Link: http://amzn.com/1936891379

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin Link: http://amzn.com/1591841666

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