Its always a good thing to know the work that your employees do, it helps evaluate their strengths and it helps in understanding the priorities of their requirements. I remember a manager at one company saying that programmers liked to have two monitors because it made them 'look impressive.' I asked if they really thought that reason really entered into the top 10 for the request and they were convinced that since they could do their entire job with just a lap top screen than more than a single big screen was a waste. Sad, so very sad.
It is also important though to keep track of what you don't know. It is never good when you have a manager who has been out of the thick of things long enough that they have lost the appreciation for the subtlties, trying to direct design decisions. I find this is hardest for managers where they were the primary coder on a project before it grew too big and they ended up managing it, and now it has evolved beyond their original understanding of it but they haven't realized that yet. Awkward!
It is also important though to keep track of what you don't know. It is never good when you have a manager who has been out of the thick of things long enough that they have lost the appreciation for the subtlties, trying to direct design decisions. I find this is hardest for managers where they were the primary coder on a project before it grew too big and they ended up managing it, and now it has evolved beyond their original understanding of it but they haven't realized that yet. Awkward!