New, September 2026
Ace of Something.
The Advantage of Being a Master of None
Most career books tell you to go deep. This one is for the person who never did, and ended up at the center of the work anyway. A career memoir across twenty years and ten employers, the seven habits that put you in the middle of the room, and how to stay there without it eating you.
The room is going to turn to someone. It might as well be you.
Part I
Where the pattern came from
From the kid with the screwdriver on a plant floor to the leadership team of a health system, and what every seat had in common.
Part II
The method
Seven habits, one chapter each. Deliver first, then talk. Gather before you guess. Hear the need under the ask. Make it visible. Stack ordinary skills. Keep a quiet center. Build bridges, not walls.
Part III
Staying the ace
Running the hub without being run by it, giving it an AI brain that drafts while you decide, and handing it off before it owns you.
Two appendices: the first ninety days in a new seat, and every template the method runs on. Then questions for your team, a glossary, and an annotated reading list.
Also by Rick Pollick
More Clarity, Less Noise.
A two-volume essay collection on product, people, process, delivery, data, and AI. Written from inside the work between 2021 and 2026. Read in either order.
Out now on Amazon®
More Clarity, Less Noise: Volume I
On Mindset, People, Process, and Product
Every layer earns the next one. Mindset earns the right to lead people. People earn the right to run a process. Process earns the right to ship a product. Skip a layer and the whole thing wobbles.
- Mindset and the person behind the work
- People first — how teams form and lead
- The operating system — Agile that ships
- Building the right thing — product craft
Read or Buy on Amazon® →
Out now on Amazon®
More Clarity, Less Noise: Volume II
On Data, AI, and the Practical Toolkit
The parts of the work that have changed the fastest in the last three years and have generated the most noise: measurement, AI, and the day-to-day toolkit. The voice is the same — plain, direct, skeptical of anything that sounds like a vendor pitch.
- Data, decisions, and visibility
- The AI era — agents, governance, product
- Practical toolkit — Jira, Python, RAG
Read or Buy on Amazon® →
Who this is for
Practitioners running the work, not adjacent to it.
Product managers, engineering leaders, agile coaches, founders, and the senior individual contributors who often run things in practice without the title. Written by a hands-on practitioner, not a consultant. No certifications are sold here.