{"id":21690848,"url":"https://github.com/reiver/technology-executive-reading-list","last_synced_at":"2026-02-24T12:03:59.363Z","repository":{"id":148331312,"uuid":"77250654","full_name":"reiver/technology-executive-reading-list","owner":"reiver","description":"A reading list for technology executives. Those that may find this useful include: chief technology officers (CTO), chief science officers (CSO), chief information officers (CIO), senior vice presidents (SVP) of technology, senior vice presidents (SVP) of engineering, senior vice presidents (SVP) of data science, vice presidents (VP) of technology, vice presidents (VP) of engineering, vice presidents (VP) of data science, directors of technology, directors of engineering, directors of data science, technical directors (TD), engineering managers, staff software engineers, staff data scientists, lead software engineers, lead data scientsts, etc.","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2025-05-16T10:11:17.000Z","size":20,"stargazers_count":34,"open_issues_count":0,"forks_count":5,"subscribers_count":1,"default_branch":"charles/initial","last_synced_at":"2025-10-23T20:41:12.370Z","etag":null,"topics":["cio","cto","engineering-management","executive-management","reading-list"],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":null,"language":null,"has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/reiver.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null,"dei":null,"publiccode":null,"codemeta":null,"zenodo":null,"notice":null,"maintainers":null,"copyright":null,"agents":null,"dco":null,"cla":null}},"created_at":"2016-12-23T21:07:22.000Z","updated_at":"2025-05-16T10:15:47.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":null,"dependency_job_id":"f5e49f8e-004c-4854-b4c0-bac6b0975851","html_url":"https://github.com/reiver/technology-executive-reading-list","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":[],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"purl":"pkg:github/reiver/technology-executive-reading-list","repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/reiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/reiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/reiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/reiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/reiver","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/reiver/technology-executive-reading-list/tar.gz/refs/heads/charles/initial","sbom_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/reiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list/sbom","scorecard":null,"host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":286080680,"owners_count":29781240,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2026-02-24T10:45:18.109Z","status":"ssl_error","status_checked_at":"2026-02-24T10:45:09.911Z","response_time":75,"last_error":"SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 peeraddr=140.82.121.5:443 state=error: unexpected eof while reading","robots_txt_status":"success","robots_txt_updated_at":"2025-07-24T06:49:26.215Z","robots_txt_url":"https://github.com/robots.txt","online":false,"can_crawl_api":true,"host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":["cio","cto","engineering-management","executive-management","reading-list"],"created_at":"2024-11-25T17:34:07.262Z","updated_at":"2026-02-24T12:03:59.348Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/reiver.png","language":null,"funding_links":[],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"# Technology Executive Reading List\n\nThis is a list of readings (and watchings) for technology executives.\n\n\n## Preamble\n\nAs time passes, sometimes technical people (such as software engineers and data scientists),\n(either explicitly or implicitly) take on management or leadership roles.\n\nSome technical people even start off with hybrid roles, that combine the technical with\nmanagement or leadership; even if it is implicit and \"unofficial\".\n\nAnd while management and leadership are not the same things (desipte many managers inaccurately\nasserting that they are) engineering \u0026 science and management \u0026 leadership are different skills.\n\nBut those are skills that can be learnt.\n\n\nThis is a curated list of readings (and watchings) that (in the opinion of the curator of this list)\ncan help one in learning some of those skills.\n\nOf course, not everything can be learnt by reading.\n\nSome things you need to learn through first-hand experience.\nThrough making your own mistakes.\nAnd sometimes through *suffering*.\n\n\nThe purpose of this document is **not** to present you with a list of everything you need to know.\n\nThis document is an opinionated list from someone who became very very technical, but who has also\n(both explicitly and implicitly) took on management and leadership roles.\n\nYMMV.\n\n\n## Audience\n\nThis document is targeted at technical people who take on management or leadership roles.\n\nThis includes technical people who are not \"officially\" recognized, as taking on that role, with a title.\n\nBut when it is \"officially\" recognized with a title,\ntitles such as the following are the ones I am aware of being sometimes used:\nchief technology officer (CTO),\nchief science officer (CSO),\nchief information officer (CIO),\nsenior vice president (SVP) of technology,\nsenior vice president (SVP) of engineering,\nsenior vice president (SVP) of data science,\nvice president (VP) of technology,\nvice president (VP) of engineering,\nvice president (VP) of data science,\ndirector of technology,\ndirector of engineering,\ndirector of data science,\ntechnical director (TD),\nengineering manager,\nstaff software engineer,\nstaff data scientist,\nlead software engineer,\nlead data scientst,\netc.\n\n\n## Topics\n\nThere are many topics that are of interest to those who are engaging in management or leadership.\n\nIt can benefit you to understand *humans*.\nBoth because you will work with them;\nand because they will be your users or customers.\n\nIn some ways this (understanding *humans*) is a hard thing to do for many.\nAnd not necessarily because the topic is hard.\n\nBut more because you have to try to make yourself see the world as it actually is,\nrather than how you might prefer it be; regardless of how that makes you feel.\n\n\nIt can also benefit you to understand how *learning* happens.\n\n\nThe following is a list of topics of interest, in alphabetical order.\n\n(And note, I don't necessarily agree with everything claimed in every paper, book, article, or video listed here.\nBut something being listed here means I find at least part of it relevant.)\n\n* [Adaptation Executors](#adaptation-executors)\n* [Campbell's Law](#campbells-law)\n* [Cardwell's Law](#cardwells-law)\n* [Coalitional Behavior](#coalitional-behavior)\n* [Cobra Effect](#cobra-effect)\n* [Complex Systems](#complex-systems)\n* [Conway's Law](#conways-law)\n* [Culture](#culture)\n* [Entrepreneurialism](#entrepreneurialism)\n* [Forecasting](#forecasting)\n* [Goodhart's Law](#goodharts-law)\n* [Handicap Principle](#handicap-principle)\n* [Peer Effects](#peer-effects)\n* [Principal-Agent Problem](#principal-agent-problem)\n* [Social Learning](#social-learning)\n* [Systems Thinking](#systems-thinking)\n\n\n## Adaptation Executors\n\n* [The Psychological Foundations of Culture](http://www.cep.ucsb.edu/papers/pfc92.pdf),\n  by John Tooby, Leda Cosmides\n\n\n## Campbell's Law\n\n* [Assessing the impact of planned social change](https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2F0149-7189%2879%2990048-X),\n  by Donald Thomas Campbell\n\n* See also:\n  [Cobra Effect](#cobra-effect),\n  [Goodhart's Law](#goodharts-law).\n\n\n## Cardwell's Law\n\n* [Cardwell's Law and the political economy of technological progress](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0048733394010064)\n  by Joel Mokyr\n\n\n## Cobra Effect\n\n* [The Cobra Effect](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/),\n  by Stephen J. Dubner\n* [Why dolphins are deep thinkers](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2003/jul/03/research.science)\n\n* See also:\n  [Campbell's Law](#campbells-law),\n  [Goodhart's Law](#goodharts-law).\n\n## Coalitional Behavior\n\n* [Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior ](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2131522.Hierarchy_in_the_Forest)\n  by Christopher Boehm\n\n* [Footnotes on Things I’ve been Reading: Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest](http://abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com/2010/07/footnotes-on-things-ive-been-reading_21.html)\n  by Xavier Marquez\n\n* [Victimization of high performers: The roles of envy and work group identification](http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl/99/4/619/)\n  by Eugene Kim, Theresa M. Glomb\n\n* [Hot Shots and Cool Reception? An Expanded View of Social Consequences for High Performers](http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2017-06323-001/),\n  by Elizabeth M. Campbell, Hui Liao, Aichia Chuang, Jing Zhou, Yuntao Dong\n\n* [Leadership in an Egalitarian Society](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258461/),\n  by Christopher R. von Rueden, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Jonathan Stieglitz\n\n* [The Biology of Moral Systems](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1446851.The_Biology_of_Moral_Systems),\n  by Richard D. Alexander\n\n\n## Complex Systems\n\n* [Why Complexity is Different](https://mystudentvoices.com/why-complexity-is-different-ecd498e0eccb),\n  by Yaneer Bar-Yam\n\n* [When Systems Engineering Fails --- Toward Complex Systems Engineering](http://necsi.edu/research/engineering/engineerfail.html),\n  by Yaneer Bar-Yam\n\n\n## Conway's Law\n\n* [How Do Committees Invent?](http://www.melconway.com/Home/Committees_Paper.html)\n  by Melvin Edward Conway\n\n\n## Culture\n\n* See\n  [Adaptation Executors](#adaptation-executors),\n  [Social Learning](#social-learning).\n\n\n## Entrepreneurialism\n\n* [Psychology beats business training when it comes to entrepreneurship](https://www.economist.com/news/business/21729454-among-small-business-owners-togo-least-psychology-beats-business-training-when-it-comes)\n* [Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1287),\n  by Francisco Campos,\n     Michael Frese,\n     Markus Goldstein,\n     Leonardo Iacovone,\n     Hillary C. Johnson,\n     David McKenzie,\n     Mona Mensmann\n\n\n## Forecasting\n\n* [The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588394-the-signal-and-the-noise)\n  by Nate Silver\n\n* [Failure at the top: How power undermines collaborative performance](http://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/pspi0000045),\n  by John Angus D. Hildreth, Cameron Anderson,\n\n* [Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23995360-superforecasting),\n  by Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner\n\n* [Identifying and Cultivating Superforecasters as a Method of Improving Probabilistic Predictions](https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1745691615577794),\n  by Barbara Mellers, Eric Stone, Terry Murray, Angela Minster, Nick Rohrbaugh, Michael Bishop, Eva Chen, Joshua Baker, Yuan Hou, Michael Horowitz, Lyle Ungar, Philip Tetlock\n\n\n## Goodhart's Law\n\n* [Tiny Nails](http://biologicallydetermined.blogspot.com/2013/06/tiny-nails.html),\n  by (pseudonym) \"Biologically Determined\"\n\n* [Government Guidelines and Unintended Consequences](http://econlife.com/2012/04/government-guidelines-and-unintended-consequences/)\n  by Elaine Schwartz\n\n* See also:\n  [Cobra Effect](#cobra-effect),\n  [Campbell's Law](#campbells-law).\n\n\n## Handicap Principle\n\n* [The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/885547.The_Handicap_Principle),\n  by  Amotz Zahavi, Avishag Zahavi\n\n\n## Peer Effects\n\n* [Peer Effects in Education: A Survey of the Theory and Evidence](https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53707-2.00003-7),\n  by Dennis Epple, Richard E. Romano\n\n\n## Principal-Agent Problem\n\n* [The Criminal Justice System Creates Incentives for False Convictions](http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0731129X.2013.817070),\n  by Roger Koppl, Meghan Sacks\n\n\n## Social Learning\n\n* [The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25761655-the-secret-of-our-success),\n  by Joseph Henrich\n\n\n## Systems Thinking\n\n* [Systems Thinking Speech by Dr. Russell Ackoff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLh7rZ3rhU),\n  by Russell Lincoln Ackoff\n\n-------------------------\n\n## Author\n\nThis reading-list was created by [Charles Iliya Krempeaux](http://reiver.link)\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Freiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Freiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Freiver%2Ftechnology-executive-reading-list/lists"}