If you have some people who do the work at hand, and some people who manage other people, you automatically put the managers in charge (because it doesn't make

If you have some people who do the work at hand, and some people who manage other people, you automatically put the managers in charge (because it doesn't make sense the other way around). And then you get the hierarchies we are used to, with managers and individual contributors. That's really a pity. In German there is a phrase that translates to "content" or "substantive" work (inhaltlich). You use it in contrast to non-content or administrative tasks that enables the main work. It is like a neutral way of saying "actual work" without deriding the other kinds of tasks. I'm not really sure how to translate it properly. As an experienced developer, I would really like to have a job with not much managerial responsibility, but a lot of "content" responsibility. Not a manager, so I wouldn't tell somebody how to organize their work, but I get to make larger technical and strategic decisions. Unfortunately such architectural positions (or maybe CTO) are very rare, even though I know a lot of companies could use benefit from somebody in this role, who would keep the greater picture in mind, make technological decisions, teach employees, and so on.