As someone whose job description is CEO (as in "responsibilities", not "paycheck), it's not as easy as it sounds. People think management is the easiest thing in the world: like you said, "just hear people," but the difficulty comes when everyone has different views, and they're all shouting over each other...which is exactly what StackOverflow Meta is most of the time.
Running something as big as StackOverflow takes a solid understanding of programmer culture, human psychology and sociology, and communication. None of those subjects are particularly cut-and-dry. You try things, discover they don't work, and then adjust your approach. Over and over.
DEV is amazing, and I've been incredibly blessed to have been involved pretty deeply as a member somewhat early on. I was invited to be one of the first community moderators (an honor I still haven't wrapped my head around), so I've been a part of a number of discussions about site policies. It isn't simple. The tremendous amount of discussion, consideration, and experimentation that has gone into getting DEV to this point is mind-boggling. I have massive respect for @ben, @jess, and @michaeltharrington! Their jobs are not easy.
With all that said, I think the fact StackOverflow got this bad shows that Spolsky and the rest of the leadership missed some major red flags. I don't know why, nor will I try to guess. But I can understand why Spolsky stepped down. He has no idea how to dig them out of the hole they're in, and in fact, doing so may be utterly impossible at this point.
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As someone whose job description is CEO (as in "responsibilities", not "paycheck), it's not as easy as it sounds. People think management is the easiest thing in the world: like you said, "just hear people," but the difficulty comes when everyone has different views, and they're all shouting over each other...which is exactly what StackOverflow Meta is most of the time.
Running something as big as StackOverflow takes a solid understanding of programmer culture, human psychology and sociology, and communication. None of those subjects are particularly cut-and-dry. You try things, discover they don't work, and then adjust your approach. Over and over.
DEV is amazing, and I've been incredibly blessed to have been involved pretty deeply as a member somewhat early on. I was invited to be one of the first community moderators (an honor I still haven't wrapped my head around), so I've been a part of a number of discussions about site policies. It isn't simple. The tremendous amount of discussion, consideration, and experimentation that has gone into getting DEV to this point is mind-boggling. I have massive respect for @ben, @jess, and @michaeltharrington! Their jobs are not easy.
With all that said, I think the fact StackOverflow got this bad shows that Spolsky and the rest of the leadership missed some major red flags. I don't know why, nor will I try to guess. But I can understand why Spolsky stepped down. He has no idea how to dig them out of the hole they're in, and in fact, doing so may be utterly impossible at this point.