On: Ask HN: What mistakes in your experience does management keep making?

[nilkn]

I think the folks discussing whether or not 10x developers exist are missing the more basic point here. In most companies, a manager's status is determined almost entirely by how many people he or she manages. It's absolutely in their best interest to hire more mediocre people than fewer exceptional people because the correct incentives haven't been put in place for managers in the company.

At many places, the best thing that can happen to a manager is for their team to become "too big". Oops, now they have to split it into two teams, and suddenly they're a Director instead of a Team Lead (or whatever titles are used).

[tome → nilkn]

> In most companies, a manager's status is determined almost entirely by how many people he or she manages

That's interesting. Not the total compensation of the people she manages?

[groby_b → tome]

Nope. Total compensation requires nuance and access to the data. Headcount, everybody can see.

And so, off we go to empire-build. It's a pretty hard impulse to resist. Especially since many places consider "growth" the ultimate goal.

[afpx → nilkn]

What incentives would rectify this? What metrics should be tracked?

[karmakaze → afpx]

Tracking results of each team. This is a start, however subjective and susceptible to gaming it may be.