I think there are different kinds of engineering managers and different kinds of teams. I think it might be realistic in a large organization, like Google or F

I think there are different kinds of engineering managers and different kinds of teams. I think it might be realistic in a large organization, like Google or Facebook, for an engineering manager to not write code. There is enough political busy work every day in those organizations to keep you occupied with non-engineering tasks. Working on small teams, in start ups, with just 3 to 4 other engineers, I found it was more productive for me to tackle at least one or two small technical problems with each release. For one thing, it helped me to understand what kinds of shortcomings there were with our tools--and whether we needed to invest more in them to improve productivity. Also, because I was immersed in the code, it was hard for people to bullshit me about what they were doing, and how long it was taking. There is an attitude in Silicon Valley that everyone is always working for the good of the organization, or has the intention of doing so. I think you can be fortunate and put such a team together. But sometimes you get someone who has either lost the motivation to contribute, or has never had it. You can try to help such a person get another position, so you can hire a replacement, but sometimes you need to get through a release before that can happen. In such a situation, being able to have an honest conversation, where they know they can't bullshit you about technical stuff, is important.