Judge not less ye be judged (if we can judge it at all?)

Dilbert teaches us that we are ruled over by a pointy haired boss who has no clue about the details of what is actually going on. In fact time and time again our performance is being evaluated by people who really don't understand the details. Not just management. Consultants, researchers, all the rest of it, who actually, often do not know anything about what it actually takes to accomplish a certain job. Doesn't sound good really.

Surely, only someone that understands what's going on would be qualified to judge and make recommendations. Let's break down what our judges are often asked to do:

Assess / Evaluate – how good was x?
Research – Why did x happen? What do y people think about x?
Recommend – What should we do next?

For the first and second – understanding the subject matter is really not needed. I can make reasonable comparisons on things that I don't understand the subject matter. One can see what the users think. In fact, having excessive understanding of the program itself could simply lead one to loose sight of the forest for looking at trees. Regardless of the brilliant foo() function, if users don't like it and it costs double what a similar program cost, something has gone wrong. Certainly there are some who can wear multiple hats – understanding the details but not getting lost looking at small shiny things. But I reckon they're the exception, not the rule.

What those who don't understand the subject matter are utterly unqualified for are for the most part recommendations. Without a firm grasp of the subject matter at hand, how can you say what should come next? Perhaps by luck there is a shining example somewhere else to draw on from evaluation, but without it, you're lost. For someone who doesn't know the subject matter to tell me that what I did was good or not is fine. For them to tell me about what they think about why that was is also fine. For them to tell me a plan for what to do next, when they don't have a clue and haven't experienced it, is often frustrating and arrogant.

Bottom line: The clueless can actually make pretty good judges, but not the best for making plans.