A corollary question is: how does one become a non-crappy boss, particularly of programmers? In my 20+ years of programming for a living, I can count the number of really good managers on, well, on my thumbs. And they couldn't be more different -- one was a University bureaucrat with a history as a radio operator in the Army; and the other was a peer engineer who was promoted over me at a big company.

Is it even possible to manage programmers in a way that doesn't cause one party to develop bleeding ulcers?

I've had one good manager of programmers. he basically pushed us all to finish our tasks with timelines that were reasonable and then encouraged us to come up with new ideas for the company and then he's be our political advocate throughout the company for those ideas. It gave his employees a lot of loyalty for him.