Re: Do I Really Need A Supervisor?

[dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

<<By "management" I mean the sort of people described in poor Auntie
Alias' tirade: Beaurocrats who all too frequently have little or no
technical expertise but who, by virtue of their MBAs, hold the reigns of
power in an organization. At their best, they enable the technical staff
to do their jobs efficiently, at their worst they waste the
organization's energy with political empire-building. In either case,
they contribute very little indeed to the actual technical content of
the organization's product.

But "technical leadership" is something altogether different. A
technical leader is someone who is both "technical" -- contributing
substantially to the actual technical content of the product -- and also
a "leader" -- someone who provides the architectural vision that unifies
the technical product, and who willingly takes on and bears the
responsibility for enforcing/promoting/preserving/extending that vision.
>>

Well your definition of management is highly peculiar. No, I am not mixing
up these two concepts, not the way I use the terms. Technical leadership
is indeed an important managerial skill.

You are equating management with incompetent management, and you read
the word negatively. I don't!