[btilly]

But isn't it true?

If someone is succeeding as a programmer, that says nothing about how they'll do as a manager. Therefore pushing for that promotion is a good way to wind up getting promoted to something you such at. Which is the Peter Principle at work.

[gruseom]

Are we failing on ambiguity here? If by "it" you mean "the peter principle", then yes I think it's very true.

But here, by assumption, the programmer is not competent (I doubt this is so, but that was the context) and petercooper's suggestion -- a good one -- was to consider getting promoted into a perhaps more suitable position. That's the inverse of PP.

[chc]

But the OP's contention is that he isn't a very good programmer, while some of the qualities he says he has sound like they'd be good for somebody in an oversight role.