A manager’s calendar and an engineer’s calendar are incompatible, because management is interruptive and good engineering requires blocking interruptions out.

Added to korrents 7 Sept 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us

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• Making management the only path to career progression is a mistake that costs a company the senior engineers it needs. CMCharity Majors11 May 2017
• Engineering managers are a necessary evil for when things break down; 37signals tried them for two years and went back to leaving programmers alone. DHDavid Heinemeier Hansson12 Jul 2025
• Engineering and management cannot both be improved at once, so a new manager has to stop trying to be the senior engineer as well. CMCharity Majors11 May 2017
• It will probably be a tough go in the long run for the professional manager whose calendar is driven by one-on-one time on career development, and a culture of designers improving is hard to build without deep passion for the craft. KBKatarina Batina12 May 2026
• Managers who are not deep in IC work should worry, because there will not be much middle management; managers will build just like ICs. GTGeoff Teehan23 Sept 2026

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