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Naturally some companies are better than others. You want to find a manager who thinks of himself as your equal rather than your slaver. This is key. The firs

Naturally some companies are better than others. You want to find a manager who thinks of himself as your equal rather than your slaver. This is key. The first sin of management is to think they're managing people. Innovation comes from collaboration among talented equals trying to solve a real problem in the world, not from someone bestowing his unique vision upon the masses and giving them the privilege of working for him. It is the latter attitude that I find the best predictor of whether there's going to be endless frustration at a company.

michaelochurch 13y ago
Innovation comes from collaboration among talented equals, not from someone bestowing his unique vision upon the masses and giving them the privilege of working for him. You nailed it. It is the latter attitude that I find the best predictor of whether there's going to be endless frustration at a company. Agreed. The MBA entitlement is pretty easy to spot and always toxic. It's better to compromise on technical details (Clojure vs. Python, Git vs. Hg) than on quality of people. If you find yourself making excuses for people because you want to believe, chances are your initial judgment (stay away) was the right one.
- stcredzero 13y ago
  * The MBA entitlement is pretty easy to spot and always toxic.* You can remove the MBA, and it generalizes just fine. It's better to compromise on technical details (Clojure vs. Python, Git vs. Hg) than on quality of people. I would posit that the general tenor of a technical community, the quality of people attracted to it, and the efficiency with which it accrues value and gains the right kind of mindshare is really the crux of the matter. The technology is just a fortunate byproduct of technologist lives well lived. This applies equally to companies and programming language communities. If you have the above and bad tech, you will still get by. If you have the above and good tech, you will prosper. If you have bad people/culture and excellent tech, you will fail anyways.
  - seestheday 13y ago
    quote: You can remove the MBA, and it generalizes just fine. agreed - I've worked for MBA's and non MBA's. In my small sample the MBA's have actually been less entitled, but I also know that the multiple of anecdote != evidence
    - stcredzero 13y ago
      The actual quote is, "The plural of anecdote is evidence." http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-fox-knows/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-fox-knows/ - search for "plural of anecdote" Yup, so much for "stuff you read on the Internet" being the basis of rigorous, insightful analysis. Sturgeon's Law applies.
      - seestheday 13y ago
        Thanks - I still like the saying, though I'm not sure how to correct it now. To me multiple anecdotes signify a small uncontrolled, non random sample set, that you really shouldn't use to draw conclusions.
- marincounty 13y ago
  I once head a radio personality say,"There's nothing more useless to a company than a Harvard MBA." At first, I thought it was too harsh, but as I put on a few years, I knew what he was talking about. As a society, we are becoming more sophisticated; a lot of us know when we are being manipulated. When ever I see a company advertise incessantly--I now wonder who pays for this exposure. I then usually find a company with drastically lower prices, and by golly, holy hootenanny; This company doesn't advertise everywhere.
cjf4 13y ago
It's a fine line though, because in any organization leadership is critical, and good leadership is not the result of a job title. A good leader fosters that collaboration, and points it in the right direction to meet some sort of larger, defined goal. Bad managers who lack good leadership qualities seem to distract people from the fact that leadership is still essential.
- jrs235 13y ago
  Which makes it important to note and distinguish that manager and leader are not synonymous. A manager that believes they are a leader because they are a manager is usually very bad news. A leader doesn't need to be a manager. It's difficult to find leadership qualities in managers, often times because many that WANT/DESIRE to manage want to for purposes of power and control. A true "king" LEADS his army into battle on the field, he doesn't command and order them to fight from behind the front lines.
  - mitochondrion 13y ago
    The king who leads the charge dies first.
igrekel 13y ago
Couldn't agree more, I had a great manager for many years and the way we worked together is that we were working together but were handling different parts of the problem. We would met before he went to an important meeting or before he took an official position on something, he'd tell me what he thought about it etc. We discuss what we could do, if there was something I needed or something I didn't want to happen. Sometimes I couldn't get what he needed, sometimes it was the other way around but it was very functional.

michaelochurch 13y ago

Innovation comes from collaboration among talented equals, not from someone bestowing his unique vision upon the masses and giving them the privilege of working for him. You nailed it. It is the latter attitude that I find the best predictor of whether there's going to be endless frustration at a company. Agreed. The MBA entitlement is pretty easy to spot and always toxic. It's better to compromise on technical details (Clojure vs. Python, Git vs. Hg) than on quality of people. If you find yourself making excuses for people because you want to believe, chances are your initial judgment (stay away) was the right one.

stcredzero 13y ago
* The MBA entitlement is pretty easy to spot and always toxic.* You can remove the MBA, and it generalizes just fine. It's better to compromise on technical details (Clojure vs. Python, Git vs. Hg) than on quality of people. I would posit that the general tenor of a technical community, the quality of people attracted to it, and the efficiency with which it accrues value and gains the right kind of mindshare is really the crux of the matter. The technology is just a fortunate byproduct of technologist lives well lived. This applies equally to companies and programming language communities. If you have the above and bad tech, you will still get by. If you have the above and good tech, you will prosper. If you have bad people/culture and excellent tech, you will fail anyways.
- seestheday 13y ago
  quote: You can remove the MBA, and it generalizes just fine. agreed - I've worked for MBA's and non MBA's. In my small sample the MBA's have actually been less entitled, but I also know that the multiple of anecdote != evidence
  - stcredzero 13y ago
    The actual quote is, "The plural of anecdote is evidence." http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-fox-knows/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-fox-knows/ - search for "plural of anecdote" Yup, so much for "stuff you read on the Internet" being the basis of rigorous, insightful analysis. Sturgeon's Law applies.
    - seestheday 13y ago
      Thanks - I still like the saying, though I'm not sure how to correct it now. To me multiple anecdotes signify a small uncontrolled, non random sample set, that you really shouldn't use to draw conclusions.
marincounty 13y ago
I once head a radio personality say,"There's nothing more useless to a company than a Harvard MBA." At first, I thought it was too harsh, but as I put on a few years, I knew what he was talking about. As a society, we are becoming more sophisticated; a lot of us know when we are being manipulated. When ever I see a company advertise incessantly--I now wonder who pays for this exposure. I then usually find a company with drastically lower prices, and by golly, holy hootenanny; This company doesn't advertise everywhere.

cjf4 13y ago

It's a fine line though, because in any organization leadership is critical, and good leadership is not the result of a job title. A good leader fosters that collaboration, and points it in the right direction to meet some sort of larger, defined goal. Bad managers who lack good leadership qualities seem to distract people from the fact that leadership is still essential.

jrs235 13y ago
Which makes it important to note and distinguish that manager and leader are not synonymous. A manager that believes they are a leader because they are a manager is usually very bad news. A leader doesn't need to be a manager. It's difficult to find leadership qualities in managers, often times because many that WANT/DESIRE to manage want to for purposes of power and control. A true "king" LEADS his army into battle on the field, he doesn't command and order them to fight from behind the front lines.
- mitochondrion 13y ago
  The king who leads the charge dies first.

igrekel 13y ago

Couldn't agree more, I had a great manager for many years and the way we worked together is that we were working together but were handling different parts of the problem. We would met before he went to an important meeting or before he took an official position on something, he'd tell me what he thought about it etc. We discuss what we could do, if there was something I needed or something I didn't want to happen. Sometimes I couldn't get what he needed, sometimes it was the other way around but it was very functional.