Best Way to Manage Geeks?

drummerboy195 writes to tell us that he recently read a 1999 interview with Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Novell, and wondered how applicable the information was today. How much have things changed since the dot com bust in terms of management? What other good and bad techniques have Slashdotters seen evolve from both supervisory and supervised positions?

Comments

Re:Truely flexible schedule

[shess]

> So why not let me do my work when I'm most productive?

I was self-employed for many years, then telecommuting for many more, so I set my own schedule. Know what? While I did often work really strange hours, and did some really good _research_ during those hours, I can honestly say that the quality of my output didn't go up in proportion to the lateness of my hours. Turns out I can do good work at 8am as easily as 8pm, the late hours were simply because I was disorganized and letting work get out of hand.

While I completely agree that you can often work better at 10pm because nobody is bugging you every ten minutes - I disagree that there's anything magic about 10pm. If the problem is people bugging you every ten minutes, then fix the problem.

-scott