tl;dr

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7417359.stm

According to Richard Sennett’s new book, The Craftsman, this ability to master a skill and then practice it well satisfies a basic human need. For Sennett, a craftsman doesn’t have to make beautiful inlaid cabinets or chisel stone. He could be a software programmer, a cook or even a parent. This satisfaction in the job itself seems to me the best sort of meaning there is. As a journalist, I survive on those rare jolts of pleasure that come when you find just the right words
and get them together in just the right order.

Yet this sort of “craft” meaning isn’t open to everyone. Shoving junk mail though letter boxes isn’t a craft. Neither, at the other end of the spectrum, is being prime minister. Indeed no jobs that involve managing or leading are crafts, which is one of the things that makes it so particularly hard for managers to find meaning in what they do. In fact managing is one of the most thankless jobs in the world. What managers are mainly trying to do is to get other people to do things that they don’t want to. To work harder, for a start. Their other primary function is to carry the can, and to get blamed for all sorts of things that probably aren’t their fault. Not only are they creating little meaning for themselves, they get blamed for destroying meaning for people below them.

I’ve never thought about it quite like this before, on a gut instinct level, this is why I’ve never wanted to be a manager. I derive a lot of job satisfaction from solving problems — the recent Honda ads with the slogan “every problem is a playground” really resonate with me. I’ve always had an aversion to the idea of being promoted into a team management role but never been able to elegantly say why, but now I can: it takes me away from being a craftsman and being a craftsman is what gets me out of bed in the mornings.

I think I’m far from the only one who feels this way, which is why we’ve seen the growth of Technical Architect as a recognised job title and as a career path over the last few decades. It’s to give options to software engineers who aren’t comfortable with the traditional “team lead -> dev lead -> CTO” career path.

Professional