"Every time I open my editor, I’m reminded that I can’t just “jump in for a few minutes” the way I can with my usual work – either because coding isn’t like that, or because I’m not good enough yet."
That is the best reason for a manager to learn to code that I have ever heard. Assuming he eventually realizes that it really is because "coding isn't like that."
"I’ve gone back and forth on whether managers should code and my opinion is: don’t stop coding. Each week that passes where you don’t share the joy, despair, and discovery of software development is a week when you slowly forget what it means to be a software developer. Over time it means you’ll have a harder time talking to engineers because you’ll forget how they think and how they become bored."
I love it that our CTO still codes, debugs and shares the pain as everyone else. He would even apologize, as anyone else for making mistakes here and there.
Fuckin awesome chap!
We used to have a TD long time ago, russian dude, that somehow forgot how to run Visual Studio, yet he was just a coder year before that. Amazing transformation!
I run a small interactive agency, half my time is doing business and half coding. The single most difficult thing I have to deal with is the context switching. When I'm "taking care of business" its a crap load of little things which need to be done, as opposed to code which I need to do in a large multi-hour block. I can never intermingle the two or the coding just doesn't get done. My business partner (creative director/designer and runs our NY operation - I'm in SF.) can now tell on the phone if I'm in "coding" mode and has learned to leave me alone.
Yes, this is a stellar pg classic. But , oddly , folks who get the aha behind it are the makers. Paul probably needs to do a new essay for " powerful people " that somehow with his usual, subtle cunning helps them feel even more powerful + leave the makers alone.
And this is exactly why I love the fact that my two bosses (direct manager and department VP) write code on a daily basis (well, in the case of the VP, it's probably weekly at this point, but he's been in the trenches long enough).
This is _the_ reason I'm picking up coding again after a 7 year hiatus. I know instinctively that without it, I will never be able to understand the mindset and workflow and needs of coders, which is essential when working with a team of hackers.
I despise the notion of the manager without technical experience in the field and I'm desperate to avoid becoming one in the future. We're living in a software dominated world, and everyone who's going to be involved in a company's strategic decision making should be conscious of how programming works, what it can do, and what it can't do.
That is the best reason for a manager to learn to code that I have ever heard. Assuming he eventually realizes that it really is because "coding isn't like that."