[dyldog]

I think it's this, but this is just one symptom of the real problem, which is too many so-called "non-tech" people in the tech industry. There's no way a person who isn't a really good programmer (or something close to it) can effectively make decisions on a day-to-day basis. That's why managers have to guess or defer to a tech lead when it comes to real technical decisions/conversations (hence the tech lead who lives in meetings with the client).

To use a metaphor, imagine if a project manager at a car company boasted about "not being a car person", or couldn't explain how the main parts (like the engine) worked. Yet, this is pretty much the norm in many areas of the industry; tech is a cash cow, so it's attracted people with a desire for money where their knowledge and experience should be. You can't really fake it being a programmer, so they've only been able to infiltrate managerial positions.

(And to be clear, the way the tech industry supports people learning is fucking tops. I'm not talking about those people, I'm talking about people (mostly managers) who are not concerned about their basic lack of knowledge)

Yes, I'm also cynical.

[solardev]

Another perspective... software in particular skews the usual production economics because of its low per unit cost vs the extremely high scalability and thus need for marketing and other business support.

A furniture business with ten people producing the furniture would probably max out their production with just a tiny bit of non carpenter support.

A software business with ten devs, on the other hand, could grow from tens to millions of users with the right non tech support, whether it's marketing or seeking VC funding, even if the underlying product only barely kept growing.

Most of these processes are there for business needs, not dev needs, with the company trying to maximize the value of their super expensive devs.

It's the assembly line model of software dev, where some higher up decides what to build and chunks it into individual production stations that each just produces their part with minimal fuss. In this world, managers don't need technical skills as much as waterfall skills. The spirit of it is completely different. It's not meant to enhance developer creativity but restrain it so that it's focused on a predefined chunk of business need.

[britch]

Is this really true at car companies? I don't know, legitimately curious

My sense at least is that at some point every company becomes "interchangeable people with business degrees and MBAs"

I agree that line is fairly low in tech, but curious about other industries