[sh34r]

I’ve never met a developer with that attitude, but I’ve met too many managers with it. You’ll be even less of a fan of working for those developers, I guarantee it.

That mediocre dev is a straight shooter with middle management written all over them…

[whstl]

I think it depends on the industry and in location. In my neck of the woods I'm seeing an uptrend towards more technical managers, or sometimes a mix of lead developer and manager, who can actually get things done.

It's a matter of preference but IMO/IME it works better when a manager is actually good at it.

A manager that is supposed to be technical but only wants/knows how to do the management part, and can't make more than the basic stuff won't really fly. I've seen a couple of those getting fired during probation period.

On the other hand, the "bad developer" that thinks packages are magical will eventually settle as an expert beginner in a low-expectation environment. Which is fine.