(This started life as a post to this Slashdot story.)

One scary moment that everybody should experience before they consider themselves an adult is the final realization that everybody is just winging it. People like Bill Gates or Thomas Jefferson or [insert your hero here] are simply better then winging it then others.

It's scary. Your government is winging it. Your doctor is winging it. The CIA, FBI, FDA, FCC, the Supreme Court, the Russian Government, Al-Qaeda, they're all winging it. Some a little less then others, but don't kid yourself; how often does the Supreme Court decide based largely on logic, versus based largely on their gut feelings (a.k.a. "political philosophy")?

Your managers, being human, are winging it. They have no more bandwidth then you in life. You can barely keep up with your projects and the industry. They have their own problems, and they aren't keeping up with your projects or the state of your industry.

Everybody's winging that. Carry that around with you. I wish everybody realized that; the world would be somewhat safer if everybody acted with this knowlege.

(Boy, it's scary. Really scary. But there's no compelling evidence to the contrary, only isolated counter examples.)

This does not mean that you should have zero confidence, but I would say low levels of confidence are in order. (Boy, I hope my future employer(s) don't see this, or if they do, I hope they understand what I'm saying here.)

You can't fight this, so don't. Roll with it. Don't commit your soul to your job. You must cultivate the ability to detach from your job, so if one VP's decision wipes out your last six years of coding, try not to be too upset.

Like all good advice about managing one's inner self, this is impossible to apply fully, and I'll be the last to claim I have. But like all good advice, at least trying helps more then not trying at all.

This is one of the many reasons I hobby program. Nobody can do that to me, except myself.