Dan Christian
Jul 10, 2017 · 1 min read

You cover some good ground here. The comment about Google was priceless :-)

Contrary to what some have said, some of the best managers that I’ve had understood programming at the meta level — despite not being programmers. That may actually be more valuable because you see the forest not the trees.

The one thing I would offer is that the best ideas can start out being very fragile. Although you will eventually need to answer all the questions you bring up, it takes an enormous amount of creativity to get there. A good idea deserves some encouragement and some nurturing. When it starts to look promising (but without waiting too long), then you start working through the goals you mention and find ways to help answer them. Programming is littered with land mines (as you point out); but the developer needs help not more land mines.

Good management is in itself a creative act. You’re learning to speak their language, figure out which ideas have potential, remove obstacles, and provide resources. Checklists have their place, but make sure you’ve listened hard before you start challenging a new idea.

Dan Christian

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Life, software, the structure of organizations, forming community, robotics