I've never been very successful communicating to my customers and bosses the difference between a "super programmer" and a "mortal programmer". It's a critical distinction that eventually must be understood by organizations that build software. So instead of trying to explain, I just email them this link:
Now I have another link to help them understand why their management style isn't working they way they think it should. Thank you, Joel.
A few more Joel links like these two in my back pocket and I won't have to spend so much time explaining much of anything anymore. I can just go back to building stuff.
Great post. Much more eloquent than Mark Suster's[1]:
Yes, I know it’s my job as the CEO to be the coach for people and that’s fine. But if everybody is looking for me to make their decisions we’ll never get anything done.
And makes a nice complement to Swombat's Making all the decisions yourself[2], and to Ben Horowitz CEOs Should Tell It Like It Is[3].
Comments
I've never been very successful communicating to my customers and bosses the difference between a "super programmer" and a "mortal programmer". It's a critical distinction that eventually must be understood by organizations that build software. So instead of trying to explain, I just email them this link:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html
Then they finally get it.
Now I have another link to help them understand why their management style isn't working they way they think it should. Thank you, Joel.
A few more Joel links like these two in my back pocket and I won't have to spend so much time explaining much of anything anymore. I can just go back to building stuff.
Great post. Much more eloquent than Mark Suster's[1]:
Yes, I know it’s my job as the CEO to be the coach for people and that’s fine. But if everybody is looking for me to make their decisions we’ll never get anything done.
And makes a nice complement to Swombat's Making all the decisions yourself[2], and to Ben Horowitz CEOs Should Tell It Like It Is[3].
Also the same point of Delegate or Die[4]
[1] http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/19/what-makes-an-...
[2] http://swombat.com/2011/7/13/taylor-drucker
[3] http://bhorowitz.com/2010/07/02/why-ceos-should-tell-it-like...
[4] http://sivers.org/delegate
Now I have another link to help them understand why their management style isn't working they way they think it should.
I have a feeling it will require much, much more than a Spolsky link to get that through their head. But perhaps I'm just cynical.