I personally wholeheartedly agree with this article. It is True Doctrine. For me at least. BUT... these last few years, I have come to some uncomfortable reali

I personally wholeheartedly agree with this article. It is True Doctrine. For me at least. BUT... these last few years, I have come to some uncomfortable realizations. Not all software developers/engineers are indeed like what this article describes. It took me a while to understand it, but I came to realize that really investing yourself into what you're developing means taking on additional risk. To have successful insights that transcend those basic market driven requirements, you're also going to hit some foul balls. To push yourself to learn new things, to ask questions, creates risk for ego. The personalities that do not conform to what the article describes, are the first to advocate "leadership, direction, single point of contact", etc. I've realized they are sometimes codeword for "offload risk." An interesting symbiosis occurs between developers and non-developers: the doers and the deciders. Because the risk is now floating somewhere between a sort of dissociated yen and yang, both groups can comfortably offload blame/risk on the other group. Everyone wins. Except for the customers and the product. Even if it threatens the long term longevity/viability of the product, the short term optimization of comfort wins out.