The point about Respect is something I struggle to appropriately convey and convince my non-technical friends.<p>In any technical team I've been part of, implicitly, respect and competence were far more relevant than organizational authority. Any technically competent person I've met, upon meeting a new lead or manager, will consciously or subconsciously evaluate "Does this person know their stuff?". If yes, they'll work for & with the lead. If not, they'll route around them - most IT Pros are surprisingly skilled at "Upward management".
I especially liked this point:<p>"IT pros always and without fail, quietly self-organize around those who make the work easier, while shunning those who make the work harder, independent of the organizational chart."
I strongly agree with the author about the importance of having a mentor/manager who is a great technical sounding board. I need the help understanding what the business direction is, or else I will spend my energy working on a problem that the business doesn’t care about. I want to know that if I figure out an improvement for area X that area X is important enough to merit work. And getting to the end of a project only to discover no one in the business cares about what I did is the most frustrating thing.
This feels a little dated as I suspect only the most clueless execs today would not recognize the value of well-run IT (whether it be back-office or product), but it serves as a pretty good explanation of the unspoken rules of a culture which white collar management and leadership might not be inclined to understand. Software engineers and IT folks are more akin to craftspeople and blue collar professionals in the sense that their competence directly translates to outcomes, and thus their reputation is based on more concrete observations versus middle managers where it can be pretty hard to attribute either success or failure directly to their actions.
Discussed at the time: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=813368" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=813368</a>
The relation b/w Respect and competence is correct. I had started on wrong foot with competent people and when they tried to demonstrate their competence, I show off my skills as a competition, but surprisingly it turns out in to mutual self respect and we get along well. I have been on both sides as showing the competence and being challenged and it always amazes me how it always turns in to mutual respect.
Lots of hogwash words.<p>People who don't IT are unable to contribute, don't understand business is now IT, and often sacrifice good for org for selfish gains.<p>People who do IT should contribute every day, need to learn the business domain every day and stop playing victim to random authority of the week.