Michael Lopp is a veteran Silicon Valley-based engineering leader who builds both people and product at historic companies such as Borland, Netscape, Palantir, Pinterest, Slack, and Apple. While he's not deeply worrying about staying relevant, he writes about backpacks, bridges, people, leadership, and werewolves at the popular weblog, Rands in Repose. He currently works at Apple on "things".

Lopp has four books. His first book, Managing Humans, now in its 4th edition, is a popular guide to the art of engineering leadership and clearly explains that while you will be rewarded for what you build, you will only be successful because of your people. His second book, Being Geek, is a career guide for geeks and nerds alike. Michael's third book, The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well, published in May of 2020. And most recently, in 2023, he published The Software Developer's Career Handbook: A Guide to Navigating the Unpredictable.