Develop more productive habits in dealing with your manager. As a professional in the business world, you care about doing your job the right way. The quality of your work matters to you, both as a professional and as a person. The company you work for cares about making money and your boss is evaluated on that basis. Sometimes those goals overlap, but the different priorities mean conflict is inevitable. Take concrete steps to build a relationship with your manager that helps both sides succeed. Guide your manager to treat you as a vital member of the team who should be kept as happy and productive as possible. When your manager insists on a course of action you don't like, most employees feel they have only two options: you can swallow your objections, or you can leave. Neither option gets you what you want, which is for your manager to consider your interests when making decisions. Challenging your boss directly is risky, but if you understand what really matters to your manager, you can build a balanced relationship that works for both sides. Provide timely "good enough" answers that satisfy the immediate need of the boss to move forward. Use a productive solution to the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma to structure your interactions with management, going along when necessary and pushing back where appropriate, without threatening the loyalty relationship. Send the two most important messages to your boss: "I got this" and "I got your back," to prove your value to the boss and the organization. Analyze your manager's communication preferences so you can express your arguments in a way most likely to be heard and understood. Avoid key traps, like thinking of the boss as your friend or violating the chain of command unnecessarily.

Use Kotlin to build Android apps, web applications, and more-while you learn the nuances of this popular language. With this unique cookbook, developers will learn how to apply this Java-based language to their own projects. Both experienced programmers and those new to Kotlin will benefit from the practical recipes in this book. Author Ken Kousen (Modern Java Recipes) shows you how to solve problems with Kotlin by concentrating on your own use cases rather than on basic syntax. You provide the context and this book supplies the answers. Already big in Android development, Kotlin can be used anywhere Java is applied, as well as for iOS development, native applications, JavaScript generation, and more. Jump in and build meaningful projects with Kotlin today. Apply functional programming concepts, including lambdas, sequences, and concurrency See how to use delegates, late initialization, and scope functions Explore Java interoperability and access Java libraries using Kotlin Add your own extension functions Use helpful libraries such as JUnit 5 Get practical advice for working with specific frameworks, like Android and Spring

Android adopted Gradle as the preferred build automation system a few years ago, but many Android developers are still unfamiliar with this open source tool. This hands-on guide provides a collection of Gradle recipes to help you quickly and easily accomplish the most common build tasks for your Android apps. You'll learn how to customize project layouts, add dependencies, and generate many different versions of your app. Gradle is based on Groovy, yet very little knowledge of the JVM language is required for you to get started. Code examples use Android SDK version 23, with emulators from Marshmallow (Android 6) or Lollipop (Android 5). If you're comfortable with Java and Android, you're ready. Understand Gradle's generated build files for Android apps Run Gradle from the command line or inside Android Studio Add more Java libraries to your Android app Import and export Eclipse ADT projects Digitally sign a Release APK for the Google Play store Use product flavors to build many versions of the same app Add custom tasks to the Gradle build process Test both your app's Android and non-Android components Improve the performance of your Gradle build