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Comment by FartyMcFarter | Hacker News Reader

But if you never did any coding, you may not understand enough to effectively lead a team of people who do that.

For example, how are you going to understand what's going on or resolve technical conflicts? Just outsourcing all the decisions probably makes you much less useful.

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The people this manager leads will also not be coders. Governments make virtually no software and any of that would be in a group that is still not connected to the group overseeing overall security.

If he has a windows machine he is familiar with what it does on Tuesdays.. From there its learning about CVEs, etc..

Can't talk about this department specifically, but the UK government does have a tech department (GDS, Government Digital Service), and they're actually really good, especially in accessibility.

Such skills are certainly a bonus, but they would not be a requirement. It is common thinking that every good general should first have been a good footsoldier. The reality is that the vast majority of great generals never were. The most important skills for senior leaders to succeed are rarely similar to those needed to succeed on the front lines of any project.

> The reality is that the vast majority of great generals never were.

There’s a fuckton of terrible generals that were never foot soldiers. How does that ratio relate to the number of terrible generals that were?

I have to ask, have you ever been a manager at any level at any company? Are you just imagining all these things?

Actually, was a manger in the private sector (legal) and am now in the public sector (military). I have seen both sides and have seen managers succeed and fail in both transitions.

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