I worked for two years at Amazon. My managers were not diving deep at all. At least not more than any other average manager in any other average company.
I worked a contract at Amazon. If the managers were doing anything other than lying about timelines, I couldn't see it.
Also the dev stack was horrifyingly opaque. Every time an Amazon recruiter contacts me I have to push down the urge to explain how awful it is to work there and no thank you.
I appreciate the point you’re trying to make, but I disagree with this.
It’s something that has frustrated me, as a manager, when fellow managers said it to me. I feel like it gives permission to managers to detach themselves from the reality of their organization.
The trick is to know WHEN to dive deep, because you are right that managers also have to maintain a broad perspective.
But being able to sniff out problems and then dive into them has always been the hallmark of a great manager/executive, at least in my own experiences.
