It’s easier to manage four people than one person
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderI've been on the junior report side of this in my first job, and these points really resonate with me - it was the worst manager situation I've ever had, due to the situation-induced micromanaging and my having no one else in the same situation to validate how bad my experience was, or share a different perspective. I switched teams as soon as I could, and I and that manager have both gone on to be reasonably successful - that…
I was once the sole report of a "senior developer", and the article nails every pain point that caused me to leave. His code had tons and tons of serious problems. The database was a mess; he insisted on storing multiple data points in a single column, querying the entire table, then regexing out the information he wanted in php foreach loops. This was because the database was so bad you couldn't join more than two tables without crashing it…
Seriously what's the point of a manager in that scenario?
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 486
- Total comments
- 193
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-07-26 | Why It's Easier to Manage 4 People Than It Is to Manage 1 Person | svmanager | 2 | 0 |
| 2020-07-27 | It’s easier to manage four people than one personFirst breakout · Best thread | chesterarthur | 267 | 90 |
| 2021-11-26 | Why It's Easier to Manage 4 People Than It Is to Manage 1 Person | staccatomeasure | 3 | 0 |
| 2022-05-12 | Why It's Easier to Manage 4 People Than It Is to Manage 1 Person | staccatomeasure | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-08-18 | It's easier to manage four people than oneHall induction · Latest 20+ point return | staccatomeasure | 210 | 102 |
| 2025-04-20 | Why It's Easier to Manage 4 People Than It Is to Manage 1 Person | thisismytest | 3 | 1 |