I worked at several small companies. One had good management, and I always was aware of that. I didn't always agree with them, but they treated me right. Anothe

I worked at several small companies. One had good management, and I always was aware of that. I didn't always agree with them, but they treated me right. Another small company had a Great Manager and an Upper Asshole. A Great Manager is the firewall/proxy between you and the Upper Asshole. He translates the orders into something reasonable that works for you and that you can work with. He sees what you need, if you're in trouble, and keeps you from getting into big trouble by keeping watch. He jumps in if necessary to help out if he can. The Upper Asshole I'm talking about took over in the end, because the Great Manager left and nobody else wanted to take over that role. It was all about him. He lacked vision, except the vision on his bank account. He didn't like criticism, reacted offended, and scoffed you when you made suggestions. The result is that you start to care about the interaction, about avoiding interaction and limiting it to the absolute minimum. You stop criticizing, and keep your mouth shut. The result is Upper Asshole Tunnel Vision because nobody says "no" anymore. So all his ideas are great, and he knows how to do things, and if he would put his mind to it he could solve any problem and learn any tool or language in half an hour. That's either dillusional (about his abilities) or condescending towards his employees. It probably is both. Now think about this for a moment: Upper Asshole Tunnel Vision. Visualize it. Does it bring good things? In the end UA spend a lot of money on lawsuits and lost lots of money.