The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)

There are different types of managers. I'd use the term technical lead for tim. Someone needs to maneage product delivery. Someone needs to manage the backlog. Someone needs to manage the training of everyone. Someone needs to ensure people are getting setup for their next job. Someone needs to ensure everyone is paid right. Someone needs to handle it when two people don't get along. The above is a small subset of the full list - I don't know everything on the full list.

Re: The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)

#6

Post by simonw » Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 2:07 PM UTC

franktankbank wrote: post #2

Sounds like Tim was the manager. What exactly was the paid for manager doing?

Instead he would spend his day pairing with different teammates. With less experienced developers he would patiently let them drive whilst nudging them towards a solution.

That's not a management activity - that's the kind of coaching you would expect from a senior IC ("Individual Contributor" - I still hate that term.)

Generally I would expect a "manager" to have authority over other people in the company: run performance reviews, handle promotions and hiring and firing.

I think it's important for companies to provide a career structure that allows for influence, decision making and leadership roles that don't also require taking on those management tasks. Management tasks are extremely time consuming and require a substantially different set of skills from being a great team coach or force multiplier like Tim in the story.

Re: The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)

#7

Post by spiderfarmer » Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 2:08 PM UTC

franktankbank wrote: post #2

Sounds like Tim was the manager. What exactly was the paid for manager doing?

Clearly performing another under appreciated task: to act as a buffer for Tim, allowing the team to flourish even when they don’t adhere to company policy. And all other managerial stuff apart from coaching.

Re: The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)

#8

Post by croes » Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 2:12 PM UTC

So the real metric is the manager who knows their team and what each member brings in.

Re: The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)

#9

Post by JohnMakin » Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

Used to be bitten by stuff like this until I figured out something Tim and this author apparently didn’t - the problem is trivially fixed by management by attaching tim’s name to any tickets he may have helped out on. he can ask his teammates to do this and they gladly will, or, nice teammates will usually throw a “figured this out with the help of @Tim” in the ticket. goes a long way to keep “tim” on your team against obtuse velocity metrics like this.

productivity metrics aren’t entirely worthless. if I come into a team, for instance, and I see they have 1 PR mapped to roughly every 1 jira ticket, and I see a guy on a 3 person team that’s got 70% of the PR’s in a year, that isn’t a clueless piece of info. he’s probably the lead. not always, and people game stuff like this, but it is a data point you can make note of.

Re: The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)

#10

Post by jprosevear » Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #6

franktankbank wrote: post #2

Sounds like Tim was the manager. What exactly was the paid for manager doing?

Instead he would spend his day pairing with different teammates. With less experienced developers he would patiently let them drive whilst nudging them towards a solution. That's not a management activity - that's the kind of coaching you would expect from a senior IC ("Individual Contributor" - I still hate that term.) Generally I would expect a "manager" to have authority over other people in the company: run perfo…

I would agree, but the manager probably should be in touch enough that they could see the teaming behaviour themselves.