June 2026
Beginner to intermediate
256 pages
5h 5m
English
Content preview from Effective
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 9Effectiveness Through Wrestling Down Chaos
When I sat down to write this chapter, I had to remind myself that chaos is not necessarily a bad thing. A blog post from the Fractal Foundation1 actually put it quite beautifully: “Chaos is the science of surprises.” The science of surprises? Two things I love: science, and surprises! In all seriousness, this blog (which is short, and gorgeously written, and I recommend reading in its entirety) makes a really good case for chaos as a useful framework for understanding life:
Chaos … teaches us to expect the unexpected … Chaos Theory deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control, like turbulence, weather, the stock market, our brain states, and so on. Recognizing the chaotic, fractal nature of our world can give us new insight, power, and wisdom.
There’s so much brilliance in that quote. Believing in a fully orderly universe is a recipe for a constant series of bad shocks; being at peace with the fact that you cannot control everything is, rightly, a foundational belief for everything from Buddhism to Alcoholics Anonymous.
Indeed, any Zen I’ve found in my own life has been the byproduct of not needing to make every decision, have every aspect of every situation nailed down, or always know what’s coming. I truly believe there’s a beauty in the chaos of the world—I wouldn’t be on my 24th year of living in New York City if I didn’t feel that way!
And yet—at work—I frigging hate chaos.
It sends ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.