The claim that management is dysfunctional across the entire software industry resonates deeply with my own experience as a developer. Programmers do not organize or manage themselves. If you leave a team of programmers without an official manager, the work will not be distributed equally. It will quickly devolve into a game of who can complete this feature first, who can refactor the biggest chunk of code in a given weekend, who can make it first into the CEO's inner circle, who can intimidate the rest of the team into letting them run things, or any other example of the kind of immature foolishness you always find on poorly-managed teams.
But it doesn't help to blame managers for this, calling them "drooling, non-technical morons," nor is it even accurate. The dysfunction doesn't come from a lack of technical competence among managers. The problem lies right in the middle of this career track:
Junior dev --> Senior dev --> Middle management --> Upper management
Junior dev to senior dev is a logical career progression. Middle management to upper management is also a logical progression. Senior dev to middle management is, in many cases, career suicide. When a programmer transitions to manager, they are (a) giving up the very skill that made them a valuable employee, (b) transitioning to a job they have no desire to do or experience doing, and (c) adding on a lot of responsibility and stress to their life.
But we do it because in most places, it's the only career track we have. So a lot of people in the tech industry who are officially managers don't manage, but do everything they can to avoid managing and get back to coding. And then you end up with the same problem you were trying to avoid: anarchy.
But it doesn't help to blame managers for this, calling them "drooling, non-technical morons," nor is it even accurate. The dysfunction doesn't come from a lack of technical competence among managers. The problem lies right in the middle of this career track:
Junior dev --> Senior dev --> Middle management --> Upper management
Junior dev to senior dev is a logical career progression. Middle management to upper management is also a logical progression. Senior dev to middle management is, in many cases, career suicide. When a programmer transitions to manager, they are (a) giving up the very skill that made them a valuable employee, (b) transitioning to a job they have no desire to do or experience doing, and (c) adding on a lot of responsibility and stress to their life.
But we do it because in most places, it's the only career track we have. So a lot of people in the tech industry who are officially managers don't manage, but do everything they can to avoid managing and get back to coding. And then you end up with the same problem you were trying to avoid: anarchy.