> The basic thesis is one of dedicated roles, with the manager archetype focusing their time towards enablement, communication, and expectation.<p>No, it's because programming requires a mental model of the software and most managers don't have that. Add in constant interruptions and the inability to focus and you have a recipe for disaster.<p>Would you sometimes take a break from programming to go help accounting do the accounting work? No, no you wouldn't - accounting would smack the tar out of you. Just because you think you can contribute because you used to be able to is the notion that you need to break, and this applies to other fields too.<p>> This starts young with telling kids they can't be good at multiple things. "You need to focus."<p>A lack of focus on a problem space is usually the problem, yes. This isn't because we want people to stay in their lane and want to keep kids from being creative. It's because difficult problems are hard to solve.<p>If you are going to spend hours pulling down code and building it, ask yourself this question:<p>"Is this the best use of my time? Is pulling down source code and waiting for a compiler the best thing I as a manager can be doing?"