[cljacoby]

I have mixed feeling on this.

Some parts of this are probably good advise, at least with respect to clocking titular promotions. No disagreement around visibility of delivered "big wins" being key.

However, I feel like this article is subliminally pro-management, with the thesis statement essentially being just make your manager (and their manager) happy. But what happens when there's no clear direction from management on what the team's goals are? Or when priorities shift on a weekly, or even daily basis? It seems pretty hard to deliver anything meaningful, if by the time you're finished they've already moved on to the next shiny thing.

Additionally, in my experience this "make your manager happy" approach goes hand-in-hand with a "yes boss" manager-subordinate relationship. Managers are empowered to flurry out executive dispatches on what, when, and how things ought to be done, and engineers are encouraged to follow orders. Results are normally not great.

[nickysielicki]

The solution to this is pretty simple: when you find yourself working for idiots, just quit. It’ll suck for a little while, and then it will get better. Which is much better than spending months trying to make stupid and under-qualified people understand things that smarter people would understand intuitively.

[kylereeve]

On the flip side, when you have a manager who's genuinely on your side and wants to help you produce value (seems rare, I've been lucky enough to land one or two), "pleasing your manager" can accelerate career advancement and actually delivering working software you're proud of.