[featuregag]

The state of almost every single open source competitor to commercial software (in terms of UI, usability, effectiveness, and market share) suggests that maybe letting experts at programming software design all other aspects of software is not a panacea.

[ath3nd]

Ah yes, comparing a well funded company to two enthusiastic nerds coding in their free time, that's a fair take.

You are comparing paid labor to unpaid labor, not a company with PMs vs a company without PMs.

There is no panacea to hiring and retaining good engineers, all I am arguing is that the money spent on a PM is much better spent as Christmas bonus to the engineering teams.

However, if you believe that what takes building great products is an unqualified semi technical person with a made up role and title who doesn't do any work themselves but passing messages back and forth and strutting around like a peacock calling all the shots, be my guest.

[featuregag]

Why would experts at programming software necessarily be experts at designing it?

(By “designing” I mean like, designing it in the large, what does it do, not UI design or something. Though of course the same goes for pixel pushing.)