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> a fancy (but simple) web interface on top of complicated backends

That, at least, seems valuable to me. Turning the complicated into the simple is a valuable skill.

Note that he used "designer time" for this.

He was REALLY good at getting management signoff for expenses and subcontrating... that is an incredibly valuable skill to have, to be sure, but it sucks if it's one-sided (other projects had such requests denied).

He personally did very little programming or designing himself (I guess that does make him a good manager :) )

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