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Helen Oleynikova!

Building Useful Robots

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Books I Keep Recommending

Not a comprehensive list, just books I’ve found myself recommending repeatedly. If you want to think like Helen, read these (at your own peril).

Communication & Influence

Where I learned my social skills (and arguing skills).

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Never Split the Difference — Chris Voss
How to win arguments, or at least how not to lose them. The first time I read this I just kept thinking, "oh, THAT'S what I did wrong in that situation."
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How to Win Friends and Influence People — Dale Carnegie
Where I got my social skills from. Feels corny to read it, but the lessons are real (spoiler alert: ask people questions about themselves and then listen to the answers).

Gender in Engineering

This one gets its own category because I recommend it more than any other book.

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Unlocking the Clubhouse — Jane Margolis, Allan Fisher
A clear, evidence-based explanation of how gendered dynamics actually operate in technical organizations and why the pipeline is leaky. Everything is backed up by scientific studies.

How to Think

As prescriptive as the title is, these books have really reflected and shaped my attitude towards chasing the truth and being honest with oneself.

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Grit — Angela Duckworth
Do you need to be mega-talented to succeed? Why effort and hard work trump talent, and why doggedly pursuing your passion trumps everything else.
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The Scout Mindset — Julia Galef
"Scientific thinking", the mindset. How to stop being afraid of being wrong or not knowing things.

Management

Practical, engineering-friendly management books that don’t pretend leadership is magic, starting from being an IC.

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The Manager’s Path — Camille Fournier
Are you an IC? No idea what your manager is supposed to do? This will tell you. Are you a manager? No idea what you're supposed to do? Same.
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The Making of a Manager — Julie Zhuo
Very gentle and well-grounded approach to starting out as a manager and common mistakes. Super people and growth-focused.

Culture & Leadership

This is how I view good leadership: give ownership to those closest to work, trust your people, and always give and receive honest feedback.

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Turn the Ship Around! — L. David Marquet
This is THE leadership style. Leader-leader rather than leader-follower, as exemplified by a US Navy Nuclear Submarine Captain who turned his ship from the worst to the most-decorated sub in the Navy.
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High Output Management — Andrew S. Grove
Tools and techniques to enforce efficiency and clear decision-making throughout the organization, relying on hierarchy and authority as little as possible.
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No Rules Rules — Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer
Extreme version of high-trust, high-honesty, high-feedback environment. I agree on most points, though I'd rather grow people from very good to excellent rather than replace externally.
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Who — Geoff Smart, Randy Street
Excellent organizations should be as small as possible and filled with only A players. This is how to hire those A players and keep them.

Business

For anyone who's ever built something incredible and then been confused why nobody bought it.

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Crossing the Chasm — Geoffrey A. Moore
Answers the mystery to why so many robotics start-ups get to a bunch of cool pilots, a small number of deployments, and then... completely stall and become zombies. Read this to understand how to not fall into the same trap.
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7 Powers — Hamilton Helmer
How to build a defensible business that can't be arbitraged solely on price by external competitors. "Operational excellence" (Andy Grove-management style) "is not a barrier" unfortunately.