I reread this essay once every few months. It is a good reminder that there is no shortcut to being an effective engineering manager. A common mistake many new

I reread this essay once every few months. It is a good reminder that there is no shortcut to being an effective engineering manager. A common mistake many new and seasoned managers make is to delegate and then disconnect from the details. Once so disconnected, it is a one-way street where the manager progressively operates at a higher and higher level. Now they are no longer in a position to evaluate the reliability of estimates from their engineers or the output of their work. Worse, they lose awareness of the technical debt being accumulated and tradeoffs being made. This works out fine if they are lucky to have a highly competent and conscientious team and it is a disaster otherwise. The latter is more likely in the real world especially if you are not working for a company that can afford to hire top-notch engineering talent. Rickover's approach outlined in the above article keeps managers grounded in the reality - delegate but do not disconnect from the low-level details. The flip side is that this may come across as micromanagement (and Rickover was a notorious micromanager). Effective management is anything but easy.