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 busi

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.