Harsh take: AI should replace most middle management. It is the easiest part of an organization to replace. The people making things should mostly communicate about company strategy, cross-team issues, and job requirements with an AI. There should be a handful of high-level strategy on top of the AI. The AI should have access to all the documents for the company. The middle management should be put in a spaceship along with HR and sent off to another planet so the people who build things can just get stuff done. This will never happen.

I liked this, although it seemed like there were unusual typos/missing words for Rands in a couple of places. Is this a book draft?

It's a good exercise to mentally go around the a meeting room and think about what each person wants from it. Given Rands' job, he obviously starts thinking about it earlier, and for longer, but even a few minutes while everyone's settling in and chit-chatting can make a difference in how you participate.

This is either very profound or not at all. Can’t figure out which.

I hate middle management as much as the next guy.

but in this case, specifically. who are these career people thinking about orgs and their movement in years?

especially in a job economy where employees are expected to be laid off despite "staggering profits". It feels completely orthogonal to the environment I exist in.

is there room for lifers in big orgs? without getting the boot or worrying about the boot?