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Specialists vs Managers,
a little thread in English because I don't like communicating professional technical ideas in Spanish as I don't really do it that often.
a little thread in English because I don't like communicating professional technical ideas in Spanish as I don't really do it that often.
If you want to make more money as a developer you switch companies because the better you get at coding, the better you get at doing interviews and explaining technical topics. Hence, easier to get hired and easier to showcase your skills more effectively.
The problem is once you actually want to become a manager. It's hard. Why would anyone believe you are a good manager in a different company?
Answer: they should not. The idea that you need managers is a bad paradigm. Effective decision making needs solid execution.
Answer: they should not. The idea that you need managers is a bad paradigm. Effective decision making needs solid execution.
I often see small or middle-sized companies looking for roles like CTO or Heads of Engineering. I think this line of thinking is wrong. You have projects, ideas, and plans that need to be executed.
An easy trick is hiring someone that already did something similar again. That's the best-case-scenario.
The next best thing is to hire someone that has been part of a team that did something similar.
Both options are expensive.
The next best thing is to hire someone that has been part of a team that did something similar.
Both options are expensive.
So, the optimal thing you can do is hiring a technical specialist that understands the business domain and put in front of him a team he/she can trust and a project he/she knows how to execute because this person is capable of making sound decisions.
There's way too much time wasted in middle-management reporting and way too many people working in products they don't understand nor like. If tech was a restaurant, we'd produce more trash than a McDonald's in the 80s.
Designers ARE product owners, Lead Developers ARE product owners. The industry has given up hiring people that build specific products and now they hire coders and artists, so the role of a PO exists because the specialists specialize in tools agnostics of products or ideas.
I'm also completely guilty of this. I've built products I don't use and plenty of times ship features I don't understand nor like but I'm proud of them because they work, are testable, have a feature toggle, and are deployed through a CD pipeline. What the fuck is wrong with me?
Developers should build things they use, for products they understand and they ethically align with. I see plenty of left-wing developers working for companies with a diametral vision of society than the one they have. What the fuck are you doing? Go somewhere else.
Bakers wake up and make the best bread possible. I'm sure they enjoy making the dough and wearing a cool apron, but they would never bake bread that they think poisons people and be like "I'm just here because I'm good with flour".
It's 2021 and the average baker has stronger values than most devs I know, including myself.
I'd rather be a baker than a manager from now on. We'll see where that takes me.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
I'd rather be a baker than a manager from now on. We'll see where that takes me.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
