I've seen this kill entire companies in an extremely slow, painful death. I used to fight this... These days, as soon as I see a Chief Architect or a CTO start to social their way to some technical goal, I just leave the company - for it's a very clear signal that an engineer is a second-class citizen there. No point in waging that battle.
As someone still learning about the finer points of social interaction (and sorely lacking in experience), what would you say are some of the signs that this sort of thing is happening?
