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A good jockey isn’t a guy who can run like a horse. A good manager doesn’t even need to know how to program, let alone be an expert debugger who can spot errors

by gklitz 3y ago

A good jockey isn’t a guy who can run like a horse. A good manager doesn’t even need to know how to program, let alone be an expert debugger who can spot errors made by their team.

LunaSea 3y ago
A jockey needs to know what a horse is and how a horse lives, trains, runs, etc. A manager that has no technical knowledge is useless, like a jockey who doesn't see a difference between a poney and a horse or distinguish a healthy horse from an injured one.
- josephg 3y ago
  > A manager that has no technical knowledge is useless Thats taking it way too far. Sure; its useful for managers to understand programming concepts (deployment, testing, etc). But the job of a good manager isn't managing code. Its managing people. Making sure Sally is happy in her new role. Setting up a meeting between Jake and the sales team so they can get to the bottom of that important bug. Helping mediate that conflict between the software team and the design team over what features to prioritise. A manager is hired to be an expert at humans. Not an expert at computers.
  - smdyc1 3y ago
    If managers are hired only because they're experts at managing humans, then they're inadequate for the role of managing a dev team. These guys are not just managing people, they're managing processes that they have to know something about to manage effectively.
    - cubefox 3y ago
      You can't expect managers to have the same level of technical expertise as the people they are managing. In your view of the world, specialization doesn't exist.
      - smdyc1 3y ago
        I'm not saying i expect that at all. I'm saying they should have some knowledge about what they are managing than just being a people person. Wouldn't you hate your direct manager having no clue what a code review is? What scrum is? How features are estimated? How estimates can be widely inaccurate? What tech debt is and why it should not be swept under the rug?

by gklitz 3y ago

A good jockey isn’t a guy who can run like a horse. A good manager doesn’t even need to know how to program, let alone be an expert debugger who can spot errors made by their team.

LunaSea 3y ago

A jockey needs to know what a horse is and how a horse lives, trains, runs, etc. A manager that has no technical knowledge is useless, like a jockey who doesn't see a difference between a poney and a horse or distinguish a healthy horse from an injured one.

josephg 3y ago
> A manager that has no technical knowledge is useless Thats taking it way too far. Sure; its useful for managers to understand programming concepts (deployment, testing, etc). But the job of a good manager isn't managing code. Its managing people. Making sure Sally is happy in her new role. Setting up a meeting between Jake and the sales team so they can get to the bottom of that important bug. Helping mediate that conflict between the software team and the design team over what features to prioritise. A manager is hired to be an expert at humans. Not an expert at computers.
- smdyc1 3y ago
  If managers are hired only because they're experts at managing humans, then they're inadequate for the role of managing a dev team. These guys are not just managing people, they're managing processes that they have to know something about to manage effectively.
  - cubefox 3y ago
    You can't expect managers to have the same level of technical expertise as the people they are managing. In your view of the world, specialization doesn't exist.
    - smdyc1 3y ago
      I'm not saying i expect that at all. I'm saying they should have some knowledge about what they are managing than just being a people person. Wouldn't you hate your direct manager having no clue what a code review is? What scrum is? How features are estimated? How estimates can be widely inaccurate? What tech debt is and why it should not be swept under the rug?