Over on CodeWalkers there is an excellent article that, if you haven't read it yet and you're one of those unappreciated programmers whose boss just doesn't get it (and aren't we all?), then you need to read this piece.

In Pro Developer: Improving Your Career In Any Economy, they talk about a wide variety of things, but their main point is to help you speak pointy-haired-ese - communicating your ideas with the management types that only see the dollar signs at the very end, and want proof that your idea for a "cool feature" would help them sell more copies of their software (their software, hah!).

It's a very well-written article that makes several valid points - quite a few about programmers vs. management, too. We really are just two very different breeds, trying to work together and make things that a customer out there just can't live without. I often wonder if more programmers/geeks should take a management class every now and then (or at least a seminar) on some kind of "Communication with Management" thing so that they can get help expressing their ideas a bit better than "hey idiot, we need to add this feature just to make this work better...."