I'm a good coder, not a great one. I hire great coders to work for me so that if I had to write code I would be the worst and least productive person on the team.
Therefore it is to everyone's benefit that I don't touch code. I do sometimes put on an engineering hat and help with brainstorming how we will build new things, or asking questions about open issues that no one has asked, but that is the extent I will get involved in engineering. I try to only get involved when it's something where my decades of experience will add a lot of value.
And historically all the best managers I ever had were the same -- former engineers who could understand everything we were talking about, but did not get involved in coding or code reviews.
Your manager should never be a blocker to getting things done.
Therefore it is to everyone's benefit that I don't touch code. I do sometimes put on an engineering hat and help with brainstorming how we will build new things, or asking questions about open issues that no one has asked, but that is the extent I will get involved in engineering. I try to only get involved when it's something where my decades of experience will add a lot of value.
And historically all the best managers I ever had were the same -- former engineers who could understand everything we were talking about, but did not get involved in coding or code reviews.
Your manager should never be a blocker to getting things done.