[NhanH]

> We have this idea in modern management theory that responsibility and decision making must travel up the corporate hierarchy. That execs are best positioned to make product level decisions. Or decisions of any kind. And peons at the bottom - the “individual contributors” who do all the programming must know the least about the product.

The problem is that the decision making is not about the product. The decision making is about making money. Unfortunately, for a lot of companies, making money is not equal to building good product. IC is completely unequipped to make decisions that would maximise the company top/ bottom line (this is a descriptive statement, and it is not about the individual either: modern corporation is famously broken)

[josephg]

> IC is completely unequipped to make decisions that would maximise the company top/ bottom line

Right; companies want and expect ICs to keep their heads down and close tickets. Of course they’re ill equipped to make decisions outside the scope of their job role. If you expect nothing of someone, they will give you nothing in return.

[lucianbr]

> making money is not equal to building good product

I think in most cases, building a good product makes money in the long term. In the short term it might be possible to make money despite having a bad product, but as soon as the short term ends... look at Boeing and Intel.

[fsociety]

This, short-term decisions win money in the short-term but businesses are always talking about retention and retention is most durable with a good product.