> and I still think you need to be able to build the software and review diffs and write serious ones now and again. I've had some good managers that could do

> and I still think you need to be able to build the software and review diffs and write serious ones now and again. I've had some good managers that could do that. But the people management skill set is so much more important to their job. And it's a very different skill set to being an IC. I wouldn't argue in favour of engineering managers with no technical skills at all, but I also don't think it's fair to demand they be masters of both the IC skills and the people management skills too. It's very difficult to be good at both.