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Re:Programmers, teach non-geeks the true cost of interruptio... by haswell on Friday July 09, 2021 @05:29PM (#27788763)
Which, interestingly shines a light on just now reductive the original comment was.

Parent comment’s take was actually more charitable to the GP by at least leaving room for the possibility that managers do real work (they do, and hopefully this isn’t controversial).

And I’d go a step further and argue that even within the managerial role, there are tasks that demand focus and deep work.

Re:Programmers, teach non-geeks the true cost of interruptio... by a1369209993 on Friday July 09, 2021 @06:03PM (#27789039)
> the possibility that managers do real work (they do, and hopefully this isn't controversial).

I mean, I'd hope it's uncontroversial that any general statement about people has exceptions, but I assumed it was clear that we were talking about typical managers and salesdroids, not making blanket universalisms. If it wasn't I apologize for the confusion.

Re:Programmers, teach non-geeks the true cost of interruptio... by haswell on Friday July 09, 2021 @08:58PM (#27790171)
I don’t think it’s even possible to define - and it’s certainly not fair to summarily dismiss - typical managers.

If you’re just talking about managers that are bad at their jobs, call that out. If you’re advocating for a change in the actual management structure itself, call that out.

Maybe “typical” narrows the net ever so slightly, but the definition of typical is “having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing”.

Either “typical” is applied to managers broadly and then the negative characteristics you find fault with are inherent to the management role itself (and not necessarily the manager)…

Or “typical” is used to describe a specific type of manager, either characterized by certain common negative traits, job duties assigned to the manager, etc.

In either case, there’s something critically missing from a dismissal of “typical” managers without proper classification of “typical”.

Re:Programmers, teach non-geeks the true cost of interruptio... by a1369209993 on Friday July 09, 2021 @10:04PM (#27790531)
> "typical" is applied to managers broadly

Yes.

> and then the negative characteristics you find fault with are inherent to the management role itself (and not necessarily the manager)

In the same sense that "typical" could be applied to, say, pickpockets broadly, and the associated negative characteristics are inherent to the pickpocketing role itself (and not necessarily the pickpocket)... sure? I don't really see why that would be a useful distinction, but I agree that it seems like a distinction you could make.