A few years ago, the company I work for decided that I was such a good programmer that I had to stop doing it immediately. I was now to tell other programmers what to do, using all the social delicacy and interpersonal self-confidence I’d built up over two decades sitting in a dark room and staring at a monitor. I was being promoted into management.
Now obviously, I sort of self-promoted myself to managing. But I constantly find myself battling the wide vs. deep divide. I want to look at one thing deeply, but my role demands that I look at lots of things narrowly (actually, worse, I think my role really demands I look at lots of things deeply, but let’s not go there).