I’ve had many managers; by far the best were former peons that had actually worked on the project/technology they’re driving, or at least used it. Better still

I’ve had many managers; by far the best were former peons that had actually worked on the project/technology they’re driving, or at least used it. Better still, those that never became 100% managers; more like people still being regularly exposed to the tech so they know firsthand. And since frankly tech is more fun than spreadsheets, this meant fewer meetings and shorter interactions overall, just getting stuff done. It meant using technology to help the project rather than periodically re-explaining everything to somebody and shoehorning it all into someone’s idea of a project plan. It meant that estimates could be meaningfully judged instead of being made-up numbers.