The Software Developer's Career Handbook

Chapter 26. The Taste of the Day

Think of this. You have a job where, whenever you need to, you can find the absolute truth. When someone asks you, “Phil, why is this happening?” you are 100% confident that you can figure out the precise answer.

This is the idyllic situation many engineers on the planet Earth live in, and, well, it’s just a great gig.

I exaggerate. Engineers do have blind spots, but for their work, for their specific pile of bits, they are omniscient. They’re their bits, and they constructed them into their specific system where they are intimately familiar with the rules because they defined them.

Outside of my career as an engineer, I’ve been a store clerk, a butcher, a video rental clerk, a lawyer’s assistant, and a bookseller—and although it’s been over 15 years since I’ve done any of these jobs, I remember the sense of naive pointlessness: What do I build? Well, I sell stuff, cut stuff, or type stuff. I don’t really build anything, I...do stuff.

This made the first engineering gig a revelation. “You. We are building a database application and you own this specific part. It is entirely yours. Don’t fuck it up.”

Delicious, delicious structure. Sweet, sweet definition.

These basic and essential elements of job satisfaction are at the root of why many engineers make horrible managers. They are trained as and love to be control freaks.

The New Gig

Now you have a new job. As a manager, you have an office and you have a door. On your desk, there’s a timer that ...