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Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat: How to Win in the Information Age 1st Edition

4.8 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0471714224
ISBN-10: 0471714224
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 184 pages
  • Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press; 1 edition (April 28, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0471714224
  • ISBN-13: 978-0471714224
  • Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.7 x 9.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,139,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Format: Hardcover
If you want to jump-start your technology career, put aside your Peter Drucker, your Tom Peters, and your Marcus Buckingham management tomes. Archibald Putt is back.

Who is Putt? Well, for those of you under 40, the pseudonymous Archibald Putt, Ph.D., penned a series of articles for Research/Development magazine in the 1970s that eventually became the 1981 cult classic Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat, an unorthodox and archly funny how-to book for achieving tech career success.

In the book, Putt put forth a series of laws and axioms for surviving and succeeding in the unique corporate cultures of big technology companies, where being the builder of the best technology and becoming the top dog on the block almost never mix. His first law, "Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand," along with its corollary, "Every technical hierarchy, in time, develops a competence inversion," have been immortalized on Web sites around the world.

The first law is obvious, but what's a competence inversion? It means that the best and the brightest in a technology company tend to settle on the lowest rungs of the corporate ladder-where things like inventing and developing new products get done-while those who manage what they cannot hope to make or understand float to the top (see Putt's first law, above, and a fine example of Putt's law in action in the editorial, "Is Bad Design a Nuisance?").

Other Putt laws we love include the law of failure: "Innovative organizations abhor little failures but reward big ones." And the first law of invention: "An innovated success is as good as a successful innovation.
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Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I have cherished the memory of those original Putt's Law Research/Development Magazine articles ever since the mid 1970's. Imagine my surprise and delight to discover that the Putt's Law techn-wisdom of the ages was revised, extended, and made widely available in this book. No pointy-headed PHDs; no dry analysis; no go-go pop psychology; no insufferable self-help tome here! Just real observations that bring simultaneous deep chuckles and bitter-sweet memories. Damn, ain't the unvarnished truth a hoot sometimes?
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Format: Hardcover
Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat

Archibald Putt has updated and expanded his earlier masterpiece to the delight of those who had the pleasure of reading it, as well as those who are reading Putt for the first time. His unerring eye for the absurd plus his quick wit have produced a book of unusual insight into the process of advancing in the high-tech industry.

Believers in the canard that pursuit of an advanced degree in science and technology is only for those of brilliant, but pedagogical bent should step into Dr. Putt's world where nothing is as it seems. Up is down, down is up, and failure to perform may be the best route to success.

Aspire to a corner office in the Executive Suite? Although this volume may be read as a light take on the Looking Glass-like inner workings of the corporate technology scene, it is also a serious outline of how to advance through the mine fields of technological failures. Or were they really failures, and if so, for whom? Readers who follow Putt's advice, and learn from his wonderfully humorous examples, will soon know the answers.

As much as I have enjoyed this book, I doubt that it will be made into a musical, such as How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. But perhaps I underestimate Putt's breadth of talent. Everything in the book suggests that we have not yet seen the complete Putt.

John Meyer
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Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Putt's Law is a disturbingly accurate description of organizations involved in high technology.
Still trying to find a way to get an exemption from Putt's Law ...
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Not really what is was hyped to be, but VERY informative from my perspective being a technologist.
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