My monthly dosage of Essential Programmer's Read came in today: (Not) Managing Software Developers. (Life with Joel gone quiet can be pretty bitter... Luckily there's Steve Vegge)

I'm an awful manager myself (lead what? *inside joke*). Not sure if I'll ever venture there again... but I just love these priceless anecdotes:

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I have indeed interviewed fresh CS graduates who proudly laid out their 5-year plan as "First, I'll have to do some programming... for 1 to 2 years. After that, then I can become a manager." Wow. Priceless. That's a sure hire.

My 2 cents addition to his "Don'ts" list: Don't give frivolous timelines that you know will slip and does slip. The only thing it was good for is to ensure the next one will slip too. And the next next one. And etc, etc. Try to get a personal calendar for reminders instead.