This is a problem that affects more than just programmers. Management is seen more these days as a generic function performed by a special (upper) class of peo

This is a problem that affects more than just programmers. Management is seen more these days as a generic function performed by a special (upper) class of people and less as a function performed by high performers in their respective fields. This happened in medical care (the rise of non-medical medical management), academia (c.f. the rise of administrative positions in university), charter schools and industry, too. The problems he complains about are consequences of this more general shift - when managers do not understand what it is they manage, they seek out brain dead metrics to measure performance, which, in the absence of understanding the field, severely damages performance. Programmers have more in common with welders, doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, etc. than they seem to think.