Larry Hack

I lead technology teams. I’ve been in technology for over 30 years, about the time the internet was birthed and before the World Wide Web came along. I used to get booted off bulletin board systems due to my name “Hack” because, “only real names are allowed”. I grew up in a small family business that manufactured furniture refinishing products. We were one of the top 10 infomercials in 1991 and built our website to sell our products online in 1998. I’ve worked for a variety of companies; manufacturing, software, banking, finance, mortgage, ecommerce, logistics, and medical equipment and I've been on both sides of many mergers & acquisitions. Although I’ve been leading teams for many years I still find time to be hands on and write code on my own, or at work when my team allows me. My approach to success: Read voraciously, apply what's learned in small, controlled methods, implement in large scale. Teach others what I learn, learn from others. Lead a balanced life. Be a nice person. My passions are my wife Brenda and our two grown children Joshua & Tasha, my dog Pepper, cave diving, skydiving, and wingsuit BASE jumping. When I’m not working on or learning about technology I can be found holding hands with my friends while jumping out of planes or flying in the wind tunnel. A few of my favorite books: Lead From the Core - Jay Steinfeld (I'm mentioned in this book several times) The Power of Servant Leadership – Don Leslie Scrum – The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time – Jeff Sutherland How Google Works – Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle Creativity Inc. – Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace Elon Musk – Ashlee Vance Radical Candor – Kim Scott Good to Great – Jim Collins The Great Book of BASE – Matt Gerdes Domain Driven Design – Eric Evans Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture – Martin Fowler Design Patterns – Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - GOF Test Driven Development – Kent Beck The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization – John Maxwell Head First Design Patterns – Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Freeman The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World – Christopher Duncan Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey Jack: Straight from the Gut – Jack Welch Object-Oriented Analysis and Design - Grady Booch A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander Death March – Software Developer’s Guide to Surviving Mission Impossible Projects - Ed Yourdon Intrapreneuring In Action, A Handbook for Business Innovation – Gifford Pinchot