Although I have to agree with the general thrust of this editorial, one has to be careful not to generalize. Over the years I've occassionally had very good managers who were not particularly well informed technically. However, they were able to put together technologically strong teams, and most importantly each of these managers were also good listeners. Generally, I found that in these environments the teams solved the problems and the manager's strength was in preparing strong business cases, and securing funding to make sure the resources were available when needed etc.

Unfortunately, in my experience these managers are few and far between. Too often, it is the incompetent who are promoted. It almost seems that there is an assumption that someone with weak technical skills must be a good manager. These people often promote themselves as being "big picture" people, much to the chagrin of those who do actually know their arse from a hole in the ground.