Would you classify someone like Linus Torvalds as a manager and an individual contributor? I see a lot of obsession with pigeonholing and defining roles with zero degrees of freedom. "A manager needs to stop doing ____ and needs to start doing ___". Who's making these definitions? I know plenty of small business owners who are quite successful at wearing both hats. I personally don't have a problem if someone out there decided that in order to be an effective leader they have to abandon their previous responsibilities entirely, but I don't see how that becomes a universal rule. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't make it right and no longer worth looking at.