A non-intuitive consequence of this thesis is that the so called "parallel career ladder" doesn't work.

For those unfamiliar, I'm referring to the idea that managers can have roles and levels which are separate but equal from the levels that convey technical expertise. If the people who control the team structure don't also have the expertise to maintain an architectural vision for the product system, then the product is doomed to match the slow moving trends of office politics, instead of matching the current thinking of the technical leaders.