15 ms·

Having worked 20 years, I'm getting me and more tired of one thing: a meeting that includes a manager that you need to explain every obvious thing to. It's no

• smallnamespace 9y ago
  The flip side is that it seems very difficult to find competent coders that are both competent at and interested in managing other people. Good coders are expensive and rare; paying an even larger premium for a good technical manager is so painful for the bean counters that they inevitably push non-technical people into that middle management role.
  • troels 9y ago
    I'll wager to say that a good technical manager need not be a stellar coder. I've worked with people who were "business" people on the face of it - went to business school, had a career of management/administrative positions etc., but who had a deep technical understanding. All of them had at some point veered in the direction of becoming a programmer, but then changed course. I'm sure they would have become fine programmers, but they just chose not to.
  • usgroup 9y ago
    Think you might be talking about founders here.
  • sokoloff 9y ago
    I wonder how much of that might be people who realize they will never be a truly world-class technologist, and so try management as a path where they might make their next career progression. (IOW, a scheme on the part of the new manager not the bean counter, or at least a symbiotic scheming.)
• techer 9y ago
  I could do your job. If I learned how to code. But as a product manager my duty is to act as a bridge betweeen you and my bosses and my customers and my customer service etc. How skilled do you want me to be? It's very difficult dancing this dance. Fighting for resources. I think the difference is most managers can be ignorant uncaring assholes. Having a manager trust and listen to you and fight for you and defend you when necessary is far more important. I'm my opinion the only non technical part of me is that I haven't learned how to code. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I eat.
  • StavrosK 9y ago
    > I could do your job. If I learned how to code. All that means is that you can't, though. In any case, I don't think the point is actually being able to code. To me, the point is knowing enough to not be a burden in the conversation. If you can follow the high level technical details of what people are saying, you're good. I have managers like that, and I love them. You sometimes need to explain some things but it doesn't take more than a sentence of "we can't do this because it would break the other thing".
    • techer 9y ago
      You're totally correct. But I never wanted to. I do love technology and certainly try not to ignorant of current and future technologies. I respect the art of the programmer. But to be slightly rude just to make a point: an average or above average coder is a commodity. In theory many many people could do your job. But a great manager is not a commodity. They are highly prized and compensated. They can break down barriers and fight fight fight. You are right not to be a burden in the conversation. You need to kill your Ego - talking endless confusing bullshit to make yourself seem important is a nightmare. But my MD could be accused of the same the way he had to realign my priorities with that of the company. But when you understand that some of the people on the board of the company I worked for never even use a computer, a bridge is necessary.
      • greggman 9y ago
        You compared great managers to average coders. My experience with managers is like many people's. The "average" manager is pretty bad. The average coder is also pretty bad. Both the average manager and the average coder can be replaced pretty easily. The great manager and great coder can not. I can only speak for the programmer side of that though having been involved in interviewing and seeing how hard it is to find people to pass the simplest of questions. But, given my experience with managers I suspect it's just has hard to hire great managers.
• cel1ne 9y ago
  > [...] a manager that having less than a minimal domain knowledge trying to 'summarize' or 'weigh together' a lot of things they do not understand [...] Sometimes managers need you to check their summary for correctness ("Can you say it like that?"), because they in turn have to supply it to their bosses or consumers. Every project will always involve people with little technical understanding who still need or want summarisation of technical decisions.
• raducu 9y ago
  Even worse than a non-technical manager is a mediocre developer turned mediocre manager.