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by embedding-shape 143 days ago
> the value of domain knowledge for managers is severely undervalued

Sure, but you can always pick that up as you learn how things work. It's a bit harder to do that in engineering as it requires years of experience with your craft.

Just like a manager just starting out isn't gonna have the right intuition and hunches until some years of experience, you can't just "pick that up", that is the expertise, unlike domain knowledge.
1 comments
fallingfrog 143 days ago
Would you put a professional manager straight out of business school with no military experience in charge of a platoon of marines and send them into a war zone? How do you imagine that would pan out? if not, why would you put such a person in charge of an engineering team? Do you imagine it would go any better?

Like sure eventually the person will learn the job but only after a significant cost in bad decisions.

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Kirth 138 days ago
During the first World War, Belgium divided in its Dutch (Flemish) and French (Walloonian) speaking constituents, had many such Walloonian officers rule over often Flemish soldiers. It wasn't unheard of that an officer got shot by his own people.

I'd dread managing technical people in a field I have no experience or knowledge; in my experience, especially in tech, such managers are often held hostage by engineers who stubbornly don't want to do things, tell fibs about feasibility, ... The other side of that is that such managers often make progress making said engineers promises that often turn out to be carrots on sticks or outright lies.

If you can't go with in the trenches, what good are you and how do you expect to build a trusting relationship?

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embedding-shape 143 days ago
Eh, I'm not entirely sure if you commented this to the wrong parent comment, if not, how is this connected to what I wrote about?

Just to clarify just in case; We're talking about domain knowledge here, not management knowledge, I'm not entirely clear how that maps to your example, as you're talking about any general experience I suppose? I'm not saying we should put people without experience into management positions, if that's the misreading you did.

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