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Hacking Work
Why work harder than you have to? One manager kept his senior execs happy by secretly hacking into the company's database to give them the reports they needed in one third of the time. Hacking is a powerful solution to every stupid procedure, tool, rule, and process we are forced to endure at the office. Benevolent hackers are saving business from itself.
It would be so mu
...moreKindle Edition
Published
(first published September 23rd 2010)
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Nov 12, 2010
Dennis Boccippio
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
management,
alt_thinking
Meh.
HBR may have it right, Hacking Work may be one of the ten breakthrough ideas of 2010. The downside is, what Jensen and Klein have to say really could fit within the confines of a good HBR article; it's a bit thin and repetitive for 200 pages. That said ... it's a quick and fairly innocuous pages that doesn't feel like a waste of time.
Jensen and Klein do a reasonably good job at encouraging those who might not yet be inclined to take personal ownership over their career vector to do so. (As a...more
HBR may have it right, Hacking Work may be one of the ten breakthrough ideas of 2010. The downside is, what Jensen and Klein have to say really could fit within the confines of a good HBR article; it's a bit thin and repetitive for 200 pages. That said ... it's a quick and fairly innocuous pages that doesn't feel like a waste of time.
Jensen and Klein do a reasonably good job at encouraging those who might not yet be inclined to take personal ownership over their career vector to do so. (As a...more
I'm a strong supporter of challenging corporate procedures or rules to either better understand why they're there, or to "fix" things to suit the organizations true needs. However Jensen & Klein's book spent more time explaining that business hacks were okay with emphasis on trivial examples such as using Google Docs or digital receipt tracking opposed to sticking strongly to corporate tools. With an expectation for more enlightening, corporate sized, large value add mindshifts or more signi...more
An inspiring call to arms. This book takes an unflinching look at the ethics, means and motivations of "hacking work" - finding ways to work around difficult bosses, inflexible processes or stubborn technology. It has lots of examples from real interviews conducted by the authors. The only thing keeping this book from 5 stars is a lack of even more examples (I could read those all day) and some more specific best practices on How to Hack. But they make the point that any advice they could give w...more
The title of this book is too "in your face", it makes you feel a bit guilty about reading it, like you're committing a crime or something. But the the idea of learning how rules work and how you work around them (white hacks) is just what we all do every day, without wanting to call it a big hack or anarchy. The book is not well written, if you read what they say on the back of the book this should be enough, the rest is just the authors saying this phrase they so love one thousand times - "hac...more
Got this for one penny at Amazon. Of course, shipping was $3.99, but it's still a great deal. The book doesn't have a boiler plate of tools to use for hacking, but it does give a good sales pitch about the risks and benefits. By the way, the work hacking is not the malicious kind--it's about going around rules when you can get the job done faster, while benefiting the company.
It's an interesting topic -- finding ways around stupid rules and policies -- but the authors are little more than observers here, not even truly reporting. There are some interesting anecdotal hacks that they outline and a reasonable case is made in favor of hacking, but it all feels a bit too loose to be truly useful. Read it for the anecdotes, and not much more.
A good read to highlight how you can "work around" corporate processes, practices, policies,tools without actually breaking the law. A must read for anyone who has been frustrated at work and said "darn these corporate processes and tools
Smart ideas, great way of approaching organisations. The concept of adopting hacking reflexes to actually get things done is really nice. However, the examples get a bit boring towards the end.
Started strong, finishes poorly. The concept appeals to my anti authority personality and the message was good overall even if a bit below where I am. My gut says that if you are hte kid of person who will read this you don't need it
These rules are mostly things that you would do naturally. The tech bent of the book is silly in most large organizations, while bending rules could likely get you fired. Also, many of the anecdotes feel dated. The instructions in the book become repetitive over time.
Apr 28, 2012
Jesus
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
psicology,
non-fiction
Very empty, about one idea in the book: "find a/your way to make things better." Not enough to fill a book. :-(
The best book besides "Maverick" about how to break the rules of work and do stuff that matters!
Pretty thin on content. This book would have worked reasonably well as a single article.
Keeping going round the same points. The book itself needs to be hacked.
Nov 09, 2010
Nannie Bittinger
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Nannie by:
Mary
Should be required reading for anyone in the working world.
Interesting. Simple but effective concepts.
Embrace the changes on Gen Y! Basic thesis which was beat over the head about 500 times.
I found this book to be a quick read. The idea being, find ways to get around bureaucratic rules within the organization you work for, and become more productive. At times it's a bit too rah-rah, and I found it light on actual tips or examples. Instead the authors refer you to their web site, in which case, what do you need the book for?
Good ideas. It went on a bit labouring the point. I discovered I am already doing lots of the ideas in the book. Probably why I was interested in the book. Worth a skim.
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