[icyfenix]

While I agree that moving into management is just engineering human systems (hell, I do more management stuff than code stuff nowadays), it is definitely a skill. Writing "human code", by creating processes and things, requires you to be able to look at someone and understand their psychology, their motivation, their skills and understanding. It is best performed with the zen principle of Beginner's Mind, and other theory-of-mind type skillsets.

Not all coders have the ability to do theory of mind, because they're somewhere on the autism spectrum. I myself am autistic, and I've only learned this stuff through intense study. It was definitely a skill I had to get good at.

One of the most difficult things to do is understand what you personally are good at, to break down a skill you have and understand where it comes from, and what it looks like when someone doesn't have that skillset. Not to say that someone who doesn't currently have it will never have it, but they definitely will have to work on it in order to get there.

imho, there's a lot of skill overlap for certain kinds of people from engineering to management, and a lot of those people end up in management. This is why, to most managers, what an engineer is supposed to do "next" is become a manager. But this isn't everyone, and it's not even most engineers- so developing an understanding that what is easy for you is not easy for everyone is paramount. I figured that out by teaching, and it took awhile to get there for me, so imho it's a non-obvious thing.