Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard 1426

I've been "stuck" in management-like positions a couple of times, but have avoided (so far, anyway) not also actively working at the same time. The closest I came was when the company I worked for was doing some kind of management experiment where they tried to have very small groups (four people) with sort of coordinating managers over, or more with, them. At this point I can't quite recall the logic, and I'm not sure I quite understood it back then either. They kept shifting the things around trying to find the "perfect" setup. The manager-coordinator thing was largely paperwork (time cards) and problem solving ("I need an emulator by Thursday") anyway. Eventually, I ended up being one of them with four women working for-with me. What was odd about my group was that all five of us were working on five different projects. I found out later that what they'd done was taken the people they found hardest to manage (myself included) and made a group out of us. We got on fine, mostly for reasons similar to what you mention in your comments. People with these bottom level manager jobs kept trying to micro-manage. I had no desire to do so, and these women sure didn't want it. Mostly I just got out of their way or helped them when they asked for it.

What I most like when I run into some young blood and get a comment like "have you seen this?" Often I've HEARD of it, and even read reports or technical materal on it (hardware, languages, development systems, OS, whatever), but I've never had a chance to use it myself or even talk to someone with first hand experience with whatever it is. Getting comments from first hand users, and even better a "well, it's running in my office, come have a look" is great. I may come away not liking whatever it is, but it's a more informed opinion.

One of the things that's been interesting about this sci.crypt cross over has been some of the deeper knowledge spread around here from their side.

Fascinating.

Well, there can be that too.

- Bill