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Do you find that this creates a degree of background stress/anxiety? After many years of being a highly effective IC/consultant, I’m still trying to adapt to being primarily a manager with a software engineer title, and not sure how well that’s going. It can feel unsettling.

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For me going from being 'the guy who does tons of stuff' to the 'guy who knows stuff' has had some upsides but some downsides. Upside is I get to share with others and get more people going and doing good stuff faster. As a group we are better off. But narrowly on me, however, that has come at a cost of my productivity is lower. I also have to manage expectations of what I can do now with managers. It does make me feel like I am not getting anything done too. But if I can unstick 4 other people I guess it is a win...?

I think many people find it hard to make the transition.

Logically if you can double the productivity of 10 freshers you can contribute more value than you can as a highly productive IC who is 10 times more productive than a fresher. Your instincts as an IC can have you feeling you are not productive at all though.

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