| I run a software house and work with programmers every day. I'm a business type person (I guess?) in that I'm the CEO, but I'm an ex-programmer, so I'm a weird hybrid of the two types of person you're trying to draw a line between. I think the question you're asking leads us to look for reasons why ALL business people can't get on with ALL programmers, which is simply untrue. There's lots of business people around the world happily working with programmers, and I'm one of them. For me a good programmer is not good just because they can rattle off reams of beautiful code and fix bugs insanely quickly. A good programmer must also be able to prioritise their work, manage their time, communicate effectively, understand the wider context of the work they do and much much more. These skills outside of their core skills I refer to as "soft skills", and they're necessary in all walks of life not just programming. In the same way, a good business person is not a good business person just because they can run a business that makes money. To get along with their employees they will need to be able to delegate work, communicate effectively, plan ahead and so on. Again, these soft skills are just as important as the ability to make money. So if a business man who is only good at making money works with a programmer who can rattle off code, and they lack the aforementioned soft skills...they're going to have a hard time working with one another. Equally, if either of the two individuals lacks soft skills, the relationship is going to suffer. What's really interesting (in my experience) is that a rockstar programmer without soft skills isn't just going to struggle to get along with business type people, she's going to struggle to get along with everybody! |