“You keep telling everyone you’re just a writer,” the CEO said. “I think you’re holding yourself back.”
It was supposed to be a compliment. He noticed how I operated inside the company—that people listened to me. I did a lot to improve morale, and generally tried to leave things better than I found them. The CEO sincerely believed I could become more. What he didn’t imagine—what no executive could ever imagine—is that I didn’t want to.
I was depressed for weeks after this conversation, though I didn’t understand why. Years later, with a bit of reflection, I think it was the word “just”. He thought I could be more than “just” a writer, if I tried. There’s an assumption there—that being a leader is the ideal state for any person. That everyone, if they had the opportunity, would leap at the chance.
It’s not true. Think back to elementary school, when you were asked what you wanted to be when you grew up. Did anyone you know tell the adults they wanted to be a VP of Marketing? No—kids dream of doing something useful. They want to be firemen, or artists, or scientists.
It might sound like I’m demeaning the executive class, and I am. I think, on some level, that they agree—they’re not cool and they know it. They’re rich, and that should be enough, but they also want to be admired. Elon Musk is transparently desperate to be seen as a tech guy, not a business guy, for this reason, and launched an entire encyclopedia over it. That’s the extreme, obviously, but every leader in tech presents themselves as something other than a business guy. But that’s what they are: business guys. All the hoodies in the world can’t hide that they’re suits.
I’ve been a freelancer for a few years, which means I spend a lot of my time sending invoices. But I, as a normal person, see this as the thing that enables my writing. I send out my silly PDFs, and track them on a dumb spreadsheet, not because I’m passionate about finance—it’s just a part of the job that needs to get done. To paraphrase an unconfirmed Walt Disney quote, I don’t write to make money—I make money so that I can write.
This, I believe, is how society should be structured. Making things is what deserves respect—everything else is just administration. But right now the bulk of the money, and most of the political power, goes to freaks who think the spreadsheets are the point. They’re wrong.
It’s cliché to complain about capitalism, granted. But I can’t help but wonder: is this really the system? Forever? One where every pursuit is judged by its ability to generate revenue? Where all the credit, and most of the money, goes to investors and administrators, instead of the people who actually do things? Or could we structure society differently, if we wanted to?
In other words: could we build a world where no one is “just” a firefighter, “just” a teacher, or “just” a writer? I think we can, and should. We can start by showing more respect to the people who actually do things (and a lot less respect to CEOs).
@JustinPot absolutely can relate to that! This was one of the worst things about the annual performance review… "leadership attributes". I did not want a leadership or management position. I "just" wanted to do fun science and engineering. My director was shocked when he offered me a management position and I declined before he had finished the sentence.
I wonder if this is part of why the average company has way more middle managers than is necessary—it’s often the only way to “advance”. I’m sure economists have dug into this with a lot more nuance than I can muster here.
@JustinPot at 3M there was the concept of "dual ladders", meaning for each management level there was an equivalent scientist/engineer level. You could rise through either ladder. Still seemed there were many more managers than scientists on each level
@carstenfranke @JustinPot That sounds like the opposite of what you'd assume from what a "manager" is supposed to be: someone to organize and coordinate the work of N>1 people doing the actual work.
@carstenfranke @JustinPot
IBM had the "Sales Engineer" role, who were more trusted than the salesmen. 😀
I trust actual con artists more than salesmen but that’s another matter entirely.
@JustinPot
We could achieve this, if we started focusing on connecting in our local communities, getting to know our neighbours, and prioritising looking out for one another.
At some point in that process communities become interdependent, and money stops being the important thing
Rugged collectivism.
@JustinPot @dabeaz I agree!
@JustinPot With you right up until "everything else is just administration."
Administration is a real job too: planning, budgeting, forecasting, making sure the right shit happens, in the right order, that people get paid and the business/project doesn't run out of money. Even supposed 'menial' stuff like birthday cake or making sure there's a farewell and a card when people move on? Super important stuff.
I think what you're really railing at are people who have a bunch of power, but no accountability or responsibility, like bad CEOs or bad VPs of Marketing. (There are bad writers and bad administrators, but without power their damage is much more limited.)
About a half hour after writing this I realized that phrasing demeans the skill of administration, which is real. A good administrator makes everything better, and I did not mean to insult them by comparing them to a CEO.
@JustinPot
The Paradox of Command goes back to Plato, and Socrates. Glaucon asks why anyone would return to the Cave, having seen the world outside. Those who most deserve command do not seek it.
Socrates is quite stern about this civic obligation to serve. This philosophy once was the backbone of the Republican Party, the Bushes, the Kennedys, Eisenhower.
It's a happier world when those who command take the Servant Mentality, taught as an article of faith: officers eat last.
I was raised in a community of Dutch immigrants that very much saw the world this way: leadership is service.
@JustinPot
People practicing "Servant Leadership" are the most effective that I have ever worked with.
People doing the Minimum Necessary Management, so they can continue their work in the lab/workshop. 😀
The best manager I ever had actively hated being a manager. Take from that what you will.
@JustinPot “It might sound like I’m demeaning the executive class, and I am.”
Epic!
This is spot on, my goal is to IC forever and/or "lead" my own venture.
Having to be a middle manager in someone else's stake sounds like a nightmare and it sounds like I'm not alone.
https://justinpot.com/the-one-thing-no-ceo-will-ever-understand/
@JustinPot it's depressing that the only way to climb the career ladder is to get "promoted" to a manager. If I wanna make more, I have to be a manager. My parents are always asking when I'm gonna be a manager. That's not what I want to do. I wanna make things. How did we decide that managing is the apex of human ingenuity
It’s confounding! It might be an interesting thing to dig into—how did manager become the default career path?
Thanks for reading and sharing, everyone! I have a newsletter, an RSS feed, and a few other ways to keep in touch if you’re interested: https://justinpot.com/follow/
@JustinPot one point of disagreement: this sort of language puts production above all other forms of labor.
"Making things is what deserves respect—everything else is just administration."
The point of society is not just to make things, it's to *do* things. Often that looks like caring for each other, communicating, resolving conflict, maintaining our built environment, teaching, and building meaning together. I think calling all of this labor "administration" minimizes the value of social reproductive labor and maintenance, so it's worth being careful about how we say these things.
The rest of your post gets this and I think you get this. All that glue work to improve morale and leave things better off than you found them is *real work* even if it isn't "making something"
I completely agree with you—my wording was clumsy. I’ll try to be more precise in the future.
@JustinPot I suspect that most of my compensation and what little respect I got is down to the good luck of having the skill and passion to write code during the brief period before AI was allowed to take over. AI gets that permission from people whom I would not allow to operate an espresso machine. I never wanted to be a manager of any stripe and so got only a series of salary raises by changing companies. I was having fun, others may consider me a failure.
See I started a career in journalism in 2008 so I’m used to watching technology being leveraged to destroy my industry. I feel bad that programmers are having to go through the same thing now.
You’re not a failure, though! Making things is cool. Keep making things.
@JustinPot this is very important.
Also see the Trantor's gardener in Asimov's prelude to foundation.
@JustinPot That's a very classical anarchist point of view 😍
I guess I need to learn more about classical anarchism!
@JustinPot i keep having that happen at various jobs, where they try to put me on a leadership track
and they get confused when i say "i just wanna make cool shit"
Imagine “promoting” the leading scorer on a hockey team to coach. That would be a huge waste of talent! I don’t understand why this is so complicated to understand.
@JustinPot
"Making things is what deserves respect—everything else is just administration."
This.
"Making things is what deserves respect—everything else is just administration."