[hashset]

It may just be my company, but over three engineering managers on three different teams, none have had a technical background enough to do any of the "line-functions" you refer-to to occasionally demonstrate technical expertise. There is a dynamic that has not been discussed that I think is important: Engineering Managers rarely have the experience or skillset of Senior IC's and it isn't about faded technical chops they once had. I disagree with the simplicity of the author's framing of an Engineering Manager "letting someone else do the execution". This can be toxic when the Engineering Manager presents this type of delegation to the rest of the organization and a Senior IC report is left undervalued and misrepresented.