Metadata
- Author: charity.wtf
- Full Title:: Twin Anxieties of the Engineer/Manager Pendulum
- Category:: 🗞️Articles
- URL:: https://charity.wtf/2022/03/24/twin-anxieties-of-the-engineer-manager-pendulum/
- Finished date:: 2023-03-15
Highlights
these are not typically people who disliked being a manager. Rather they tend to be engineers who really enjoyed people management, and find it bittersweet to give up. Maybe they will miss the strategic elements and roadmap work, but they’re excited to clear their calendar and spend time in flow again (View Highlight)
If you’re a good manager it’s actually nearly impossible to hide that you have the skills, because of the way it infuses your work and everything that you do as an IC. You get better at prioritization, more attuned to the needs of the business, and restless about work that doesn’t materially move the business forward (View Highlight)
You are more likely to spend the rest of your career fending off management “opportunities” with a baseball bat than you are to wither away, pining for another shot. (View Highlight)
Your engineering skills do wither and erode as time goes on. It will take longer and longer to refresh your skills the longer you go without using them (View Highlight)
Management skills don’t decay in the same way that technical ones do, nor do they go out of date every few years as languages, frameworks and technologies tend to do. (View Highlight)