The "Bookshelf": what to read in Parallels

They read in successful IT-companies? As books help talented developers and managers? How do companies organize their libraries? This new project Lifehacker.ru and publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" - "Bookshelf".

To begin with, we decided to look at the shelves of the company Parallels.

In Parallels running profiles of the Mac virtualization and automation of data centers. The company set up Stas Protasov and Sergey Belousov in 1999, now known throughout the world and has 16 offices in the US, Europe and Asia. We visited the Moscow office.

Most of the books in Parallels scattered on shelves and desks of employees. But there is this one case, a kind of point Bukkrossing. At the cabinet has its own history.

Julia says, PR-director of the company:

"The library has arisen spontaneously. There were no instructions from above. Some of the employees had read the book and decided that she, too, is another useful. Others have begun to bear, and for a year we picked up a wardrobe. "

Later it turned out that such cases are almost in each of the 16 Parallels offices. We sigh, we can not avoid them all.

And here is a simple solution to the problem of stripping books home library.

Learning from the shelves. Two volumes of "Physics for the curious"Three volumes on Intel architecture, textbook work of Philip Kotler's marketing and somehow" clean copy "Lukyanenko.

Most books about languages: Haskell, Perl, C ++. We are not surprised to see books like "Windows Server 2003 for professionals», «Microsoft Windows 2000 internal device"And other grimoires about operating systems.

We were happy when we found on the shelf bestseller by Robert Kiyosaki "Rich dad, poor dad"- how to perceive the world of the future millionaire.

Generally considered to be the company that engineers is useful to know the business component. Many leading developers of respect Crossing the Chasm Jeffrey Moore (marketing of high-tech market) and the Inside the Tornado (On the development and survival strategies in the emerging markets). developers are often advised to read the history of Red Hat, Netscape, Oracle, Napster and Google, so these books do not stay on the shelf.

Julia explains:

"Engineers do not just write code, they create products - a history of ups and downs allow companies to understand how a product should be developed."

"Serguei Beloussov periodically accuses me that I still have not read Isaacson's book on Steve Jobs" - shared Julia.

«Black Swan"- bestseller mathematician Nassim Taleb, who studies the role of luck and chance in business and life. We love Taleb, his book "fooled by randomness"I became a bestseller.

Parallels is headquartered in the United States, hence a lot of books in English - is an internal company language. In Russia there is a product development, and other offices in Asia and Europe are doing localization.

Library at the American office appeared differently:

"Almost all the books that are in the office in the United States, brought home our CEO Birger Steen," - says Julia.

Open a small publishing secret. One of the greatest pleasures for a person who is engaged in publishing books - accidentally see his book on the desk of an intelligent man. At one of the tables Parallels we met our "Runetologiyu».

By the way, how do you mean neighborhood books: the novel «A Reliable Wife», and next "Overclocking your site"And" Elegance hedgehog? "

Alex Kosciuszko shows a bookshelf over his desk and tells a terrible secret:

"In our company, we not all read the Whip".

I remember Knut Hamsun, but wrong. Alex points to monograph of Donald Knuth and explains:

"It's like a textbook Laundau and Livshits, only programming. The first volume I have rarely needed, so I took him to the library. "

Many of the books that are on his shelf, read Alex because he is working on a book.

Stop. What was that you said about the book?

"Yes, we are planning to publish a book. In developing our virtualization products, we climb deep into the operating system, so we know is what many professionals do not suspect. In the book, we will tell about the undocumented possibilities Windows. If anything, it will be possible to blackmail this book Microsoft ", - Yulia jokes.

In writing the book help Alexei guest editor.

Perhaps, in this draft, Alexei - the information to blackmail Microsoft.

Before leaving, we looked into the office of engineer Anton Yenakiyevo and Lesha Koryakina. The first leads the development of the hypervisor, and the second - a technical consultant Stas Protasov.

They collected their bookcase. Yeah, that's another book about the history of the company - "Showstopper"Pascal Zachary. She tells how Bill Gates and Microsoft have come to success.

Shelf below another motley set - Chuck Palahniuk, "Time Drive"In St. Petersburg and guide"Inside Windows Server 2003».

Finally Julia told us about the plans for a library:

"We want to add an Intranet supervision function. We will also collect suggestions about what to buy in the library. Dial the 10 people who want a specific book - order on Amazon. It would be desirable to maintain the passion for reading. "

We - the employees of the publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" - doing the heading "Bookshelf" because terribly like to spy, what books people choose smart. If you have ideas on how to make the project more interesting, or you are willing to share life hacking to conduct the office library, write to us in comments.