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>I honestly believe that a rational geek has to give up some rationality in order to become a boss. Uh, that doesn't make sense. Becoming a boss might cause y
by endtime 16y ago
>I honestly believe that a rational geek has to give up some rationality in order to become a boss.
Uh, that doesn't make sense. Becoming a boss might cause your incentives and perspective to change, but if "rationality" makes you worse at your job then whatever you're calling "rationality" isn't.
- dpritchett 16y agoI'm guessing edw519's post was a riff on "what got you here won't get you there", namely that a highly developed ability to reason logically and to debug is less valuable to a manager than to a developer. Managers are going to also need plenty of empathy and charisma.
- bostonpete 16y agoI think it must depend on the environment. In my company, development managers (right up to the VP of software) are extremely competent developers and are expected to be able to solve the problems (or help solve the problems) that individual contributors are spinning their wheels on. Maybe at a larger company this model doesn't work as well, but I would assume that development managers at most small tech companies are highly proficient developers. Am I totally off base here...?
- wisty 16y agoSuccessful companies (um, Microsoft?) have mostly razor-sharp bosses. Floundering companies often have a wider range of abilities (both managers and devs). It's a crap-shot whether your boss is great, or clueless.