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The Apress Business Team

This remains a work of semi-fiction.

A book on management is filled with insight, ideas, and opinions about how to lead humans. All of this information is based on real-life experience with actual people I still know. While I’d love to tell you that all my leadership experiences have been positive, they haven’t been. I’ve lost my shit a couple of times, and there were witnesses. These witnesses are the ones who helped me pull it together and gave me another page for this book.

All the names of people referred to in the chapters of this book are fake. I’ve taken everyone that I’ve known and mentally thrown them into a bag, shaken said bag, and pulled out Fez, Phil, Alice, and Frank. Using these constructed characters, I create a story, sometimes set in a familiar company I actually worked for—like Apple, Slack, Netscape, Palantir, Pinterest, or Borland—which allows me to explain whatever leadership insight I’m relaying. Like my characters, my stories are fake. My hope is that they still ring true in your head because while they are fantastic stories, they are based on real experiences.

The icing on this semi-fictional cake is Rands. This is a name I began using in the mid-1990s for my virtual presence. When I began blogging, the name stuck. Think of Rands as your semi-fictional guide walking you through the fake stories of fake people that have had incredible relevant (yet fake) experiences.

Rands has a bit of attitude, but, then again, so do I.