I like this metaphor, it accurately captures a lot of what managing is about, though it&#x27;s worth mentioning that the greatest difficulties are never, <i>ever</i> technical, they&#x27;re always about people and feelings, which can surprise a lot of new managers.<p>This article outlines some great first things to look for, but something important is missing: sometimes, after trying everything, it turns out that your team just has some truly terrible, morale-sucking people on it, and they need to be fired before things will pick up. That&#x27;s sort of the &quot;file a compiler bug&quot; option of last resort, but there really are a lot of toxic people like that out there, especially amongst programmers, and as a manager you&#x27;ll need to be able to pick them out and deal with them. That&#x27;s almost the most important part of your job.