A career in technology requires acumen in a specific domain. However, as one’s career builds, people skills (so-called “soft skills”) come more to the fore. Suddenly, being the “smartest person in the room” is of limited benefit. Indeed, it can be a handicap because that means that you don’t have anyone to counterbalance your ideas and to collaborate with. Cybersecurity CEO Christian Espinosa tries to guide those in technology how to transition from someone proficient at a skill (principally, cybersecurity) into a team player who can lead.
In my opinion, this book tries to do too much. It tries to help those in technical professions to develop self-knowledge and a people-oriented side. In my opinion, this book’s main strength consists in this theme. Another competing theme is around the field of cybersecurity specifically. Frankly, this theme just muddies the waters. Many examples come from this field – which is fine – but Espinosa tries to make a statement to change the future of this field. To me, that attempt falls short. This book needs to focus on either the first theme or the last theme. Instead, it tries to do both and loses much strength in the effort.
As a software developer, I read this book hoping to learn a thing or two about how to work with cybersecurity folks better. I learned tools to help them improve their teamwork, but it directly didn’t help me learn to work with them better. It didn’t teach me much about cybersecurity either, other than that Espinosa sees this field as dominated by socially insecure people. Many other technical fields could share this observation, honestly, including my own. I wish he would have focused on one central concept in depth. Instead, the work did too much for my reading.
In reality, this book addresses the relatively small audience of cybersecurity workers who also read self-improvement books. It contains much that could reach the broader audience of all workers involved in technology, but it constantly tries to return to a central argument that the field of cybersecurity needs to change. That tendency limits its potential and reach. And that’s unfortunate because with a little retooling, Espinosa could teach all technical workers how to become better people. That’s something many more, including myself, could learn from if only this book were slightly retooled.
The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity
By Christian Espinosa
Copyright (c) 2021
Lioncrest Publishing
ISBN13 9781544516219
Page Count: 279
Genre: Self-Help, Computers
Sponsored link to www.amazon.com