A Call to Action
Programming is no casual pursuit. It is a craft, a profound discipline that demands humility, relentless effort, and lifelong dedication. It is the backbone of the digital world we live in, shaping every app, system, and service we rely on. Behind every seamless user experience lies the labor of a programmer who wrestled with complexity, frustration, and failure to create something real and valuable.
Yet, somewhere along the way, the industry lost its way.
The Hard Truth About Mastery
Mastery doesn’t come from buzzwords, empty conference speeches, or flashy “thought leadership.” It comes from grit and grind; the day-in, day-out work of writing code, breaking things, fixing bugs, and learning from every failure.
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Practice Relentlessly
Write code regularly. Build real projects, solve real problems. Growth only comes through doing, not pretending. -
Embrace Failure
Each bug, crash, or rejection is a lesson. Learn deeply from mistakes, refine relentlessly, and never settle for “good enough.” -
Value Clarity and Simplicity
The best code is clear, maintainable, and effective. Resist the urge to show off. Mastery shines through simplicity and impact. -
Keep Learning with Purpose
Technology evolves fast. But chasing every fad won’t help if you don’t master fundamentals. -
Share and Teach Honestly
Real leadership means helping others grow by offering honest, practical advice, not vague slogans.
Coding is a craft we must reclaim, removing the noise to bring back the rigor, patience, and respect it deserves.
The Industry’s Rot: Titles Over Talent
Too many companies hire by résumés and buzzwords, not by demonstrated skill or impact. They fill teams with “process police”: PMs, scrum masters, and managers who drown real builders in rituals and meetings instead of enabling progress.
They let MBAs masquerade as leaders, barking business jargon without understanding code, customers, or markets. They elevate domain experts who talk in circles but never deliver solutions. They encourage “thought leadership” that is all style and no substance, turning valuable craft into a shallow popularity contest.
MBAs, Domain Experts, and Pretenders
The harsh truth: most MBAs in tech are neither real subject matter experts, nor strategic thinkers, nor sales drivers. Many are career politicians fluent in buzzwords but allergic to accountability. They thrive on process over progress, padding agendas with empty “strategic visions” while avoiding the gritty work of building and selling great products.
Many domain experts cloak themselves in complexity, spouting jargon and lofty frameworks without solving actual problems. They stay in their theoretical comfort zones while builders struggle without meaningful guidance.
Insight without execution is useless. You’re not helping if you can’t roll up your sleeves and make something better.
Career Switches Playing PM & the Epidemic of Useless Frameworks
Project management in software is not a casual pursuit or a side hobby; it demands genuine dedication, structured thinking, and leadership rooted in an understanding of what it takes to deliver working software.
Career switchers bring resilience, empathy, and fresh energy to the industry, and when they commit to truly learning the domain, they can become outstanding leaders. But stepping into PM roles after a short online course, armed only with checklists, templates, and jargon, does a disservice to themselves, their teams, and the profession.
Real PM work is not about holding meetings, making slide decks, or ticking boxes. It’s about anticipating risks, guiding delivery, aligning stakeholders, and owning the outcome.
Layer on top the spread of trendy, over-packaged frameworks: “design thinking,” “agile scaling,” and countless consultancy-born gimmicks. Most promise transformation but deliver process bloat and terminology theatre. When misapplied, they suffocate creativity, stall progress, and give unprepared leaders a shield to hide behind.
Frameworks are tools, not religions. In the hands of the skilled, they enable. In the hands of the unprepared, they paralyze.
To all stepping into leadership, especially those from non-traditional backgrounds such as dedicated homemakers, embrace this journey with humility, patience, and commitment. Lead with intention and accountability. The software industry thrives on real leadership rooted in respect, not on fleeting appearances or performative rituals.
Artists and Creatives: Respect the Discipline
Creativity is invaluable — artists bring perspectives that can enrich design and product thinking. But coding is not a paintbrush. It’s a precise instrument that demands abstraction, logic, and rigorous problem-solving.
Artistic flair alone will not make you a great programmer. If you’re serious about crossing into software, approach it as an entirely new craft that requires patience, humility, and years of practice.
Master the Craft or Step Aside
Coding is not about the performance of leadership or the theatre of process. It’s about building, refining, and perfecting something until it works and delivers value.
Real mastery is slow, demanding, and humbling — forged in the trenches, not in workshops or networking events. You cannot fake it. You cannot skip it.
What Must Change
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Hire builders, not title collectors.
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Give engineers a real voice in decisions.
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Use process as a tool, not a religion.
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Demand execution and accountability from PMs, MBAs, and SMEs.
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Kill empty “thought leadership” theatre.
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Foster a culture rooted in curiosity, apprenticeship, and craft.
Final Word: Programming will never be easy, and that’s exactly why it’s worth doing. But it is being suffocated by ego, incompetence, and performative leadership. Strip away the noise. Put the craft back at the centre. Build an industry that creates, not just manages appearances.
Footnote: A Personal Experience
Speaking from firsthand experience, the last manager I worked under was an MBA graduate who had never written a single line of code in their life and couldn’t sell a dime. Armed with flashy jargon and buzzwords, systematically derailed careers and projects across the organization. Instead of enabling builders or driving results, the empty rhetoric created confusion, stalled progress, and drained morale. This stark reality underscores the urgent need to rethink who we elevate into leadership roles and why true mastery, technical or strategic, must come before titles or degrees.