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Why I code as a CTO

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Re: Why I code as a CTO

#171

Post by icedchai »

BoxFour wrote: post #141
brabel wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re wrong man. These things you mentioned happen rarely, it’s not what you do day to day. If you don’t do some high value coding you have no clue how to steer a tech company at a technical level.

> it’s not what you do day to day. I don't know about that. I was a "CTO" for a small (10-person) and a slightly larger (around 100-person) VC-backed startup. Hiring was always top of mind at both places. Not even "people management", just hiring alone. I'm not saying this universal, but when a company is expected to scale rapidly (as is often the case with venture-backed firms), managing people can easily consume yo…

As a former "CTO" at a small company and an early stage employee at several others, hiring was a ton of work for everyone. It was honestly the hardest thing I had to do. However, it was by no means a constant, day-to-day thing.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#172

Post by icedchai »

dilyevsky wrote: post #75
freddie_mercury wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always have wondered a bit, do people in other fields have this, too? Like do people expect the CMO at a pharmaceutical company to still be running clinical trials or whatever to, I dunno, maintain their street cred? Or is it just tech companies where people seem to have existential angst about managers doing manager instead of "technical" work?

This is a series B company not an international pharmaceutical conglomerate. Perfectly reasonable for a CTO to participate in engineering work at this stage. I've experienced a few early companies where CTO just did meetings or that didn't have someone within the leadership team who dug into engineering at all and it wasn't pretty...

I've experienced small companies that "scaled" their org and added unnecessary layers of management "because we're going to need it sooner than later." They never needed it. The leaders were out of touch with what was actually happening. Complete dysfunction ensued...

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#173

Post by stackedinserter »

fooster wrote: post #165
xrd wrote: post #131

I stopped reading when he said "I have no direct reports" in the first paragraph. If you are the CTO and have no direct reports, you are pretending to be a CTO because that is not what a CTO does. (Actually, I did read more, but with contempt stuck in my eyes...) AI coding tools are great, and the biggest problem they create is that inexperienced people think they can now make technical contributions AND management.…

There are lots of different types of CTO. Who are you to say which is right and which is wrong?

Who said a janitor can't call himself a CTO?

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#174

Post by stackedinserter »

tptacek wrote: post #12
willio58 wrote: post #10

> I currently manage no direct reports and ship a lot of code. This is a wildly different status than almost all other people with this title. I’m glad this person still likes coding, and they seem to be great at it, but this role doesn’t match up to the title. This doesn’t really matter until he wants to switch jobs and realizes near zero CTO positions outside of this one company will require few meetings and zero m…

No it isn't. Lots of CTOs don't have reports.

CTO without reports is just a "developer".

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#175

Post by jenadine »

zkmon wrote: post #133

There are a few serious issues with this kind of "passion" in a work area outside of yours. * PR reviews for your commits may not be honest, as people may hesitate to reject your code changes. * You may not have time for your actual responsibilities. * It may confuse people about your role. * May be you are not letting some folks do their job. * You are probably a coder at heart, not a CTO.

> PR reviews for your commits may not be honest [...]

True. That's already something I struggle being the most senior in my team. It is hard to find reviewer for my commits who dare to actually reject my code.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#176

Post by majgr »

Please, do not. Nobody will do a real code review for such a person. Nobody will start a discussion if this or that change makes sense. If you have managerial position stick to it and do not make other people's lives miserable

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#177

Post by obiefernandez »

eitally wrote: post #170
doctorleff wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall James Goodnight of SAS coding while being a CEO. As per https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2014/05/12/an-intervi... , he still programs from time to time but doesn't have a specific part in development. In looking at the articles to refresh my memory, it is clear he is one of the good CEO's

I don't think that's the model we should be looking at here. I'd add Stephen Wolfram to the very short list of similar technical CEOs.

Tobi Luetke at Shopify too

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#178

Post by kgwxd »

tptacek wrote: post #5

Articles like these are kind of hard to parse because there's no well-defined meaning to the title of "CTO". Our "CTO" codes, probably more than anybody in the company, but that's because he's got a founder-inherited CTO title that mostly just means "he can do whatever he wants" --- we're happy with that, what he wants is practically always great. That's one definition of a CTO. Another CTO type is the opposite: "the…

When anyone mentions having the title CTO, it's guaranteed what follows will be also be pretentious BS.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#179

Post by kgwxd »

mexicocitinluez wrote: post #123
tptacek wrote: post #5

Articles like these are kind of hard to parse because there's no well-defined meaning to the title of "CTO". Our "CTO" codes, probably more than anybody in the company, but that's because he's got a founder-inherited CTO title that mostly just means "he can do whatever he wants" --- we're happy with that, what he wants is practically always great. That's one definition of a CTO. Another CTO type is the opposite: "the…

> because there's no well-defined meaning to the title of "CTO". Our "CTO" codes, Amen. I am a CTO, but spend most of my day coding. I was brought onto a smallish/medium sized company to get their base tech into the modern age, build LOB apps to improve some workflows, and ultimate build a new EMR in that space to replace the one the company is using. I don't have anybody that reports to me. I'm one of 2 tech people…

Then why even mention the CTO part?

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#180

Post by zdragnar »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #146
dilyevsky wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid you'd actually have to do any real work when there's so many design, retro, and daily sync meetings to attend and so many jira issues to groom.

Ive worked on both ends of the spectrum and id prefer too much process to too little With too little process, people release bugs that I then have to scramble to fix. The CEO who pushed to skip QA and unit testing and everything in the name of release never has to deal with the consequences of their impatience

That same CEO would likely also push to have all of the things including no bugs, then complain people aren't productive enough when arbitrary and unrealistic deadlines aren't met.

Source: my personal experience. Very few of the managers who can code that I've worked with were better than any of the ones who couldn't, and those who did actively code while managing were universally worse.

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