I think there is a slight correlation between having some expertise in the team that you're managing and your overall performance as the manager. Some points al

I think there is a slight correlation between having some expertise in the team that you're managing and your overall performance as the manager. Some points along this argument include empathy for engineers' work, and I totally agree with you. However, and especially at scale, there is a humanistic factor in management that having technical background alone can't fix. How do you manage deadlines? How do you deal with engineers who over-engineer a feature and go down that deep technical rabbit hole, with no "done date" in sight? How do you deal with people having to take a sabbatical but having an important project deadline around the corner? Heck, I'd argue engineers like myself are pretty bad at this and still constantly learning. Don't forget that expectation vs reality distortion is real. Great managers are essentially brokers to keep expectation and reality in check.