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Why I code as a CTO

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Re: Why I code as a CTO

#261

Post by johnjwang »

sa-code wrote: post #115
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #67

Man, if I'm trying to decide which company to work for, and I see a blog post from its CTO crowing about regularly checking in code on Saturdays and Sundays, I'd start backing slowly away. And when I got to the bit that said "AI has made me three times as productive," I'd turn and run. Your job at the top is, more than anything else, pushing down a healthy culture. That includes things like setting an example of not…

> I don’t particularly enjoy building orgs and figuring out people stuff. Engineering management involves navigating interpersonal dynamics, performance reviews, and organizational design. These are crucial functions, but they’re not where my strengths lie. This bit got me. It's a direct quote from the linked post for those who haven't read it

(Author here) I stand by this comment and I think it’s really important for engineers to recognize that everyone has different places where they gain and lose energy.

My team and I have been extremely lucky in hiring Joe, our excellent head of engineering, and an extremely strong set of engineering managers. Not to mention incredibly strong product and user experience management.

I think it’s pretty obvious that my approach wouldn’t work if I didn’t have this bench of talented managers, but because I do it affords me the luxury to spend time doing things that I love and which are also valuable to the company.

In general, I wrote this article because I think that the classical approach to engineering management isn’t the only path you need to take, and a lot depends on the team you work with (thankfully we have a team that complements each other really well).

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#262

Post by ketamine »

johnjwang wrote: post #260
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #67

Man, if I'm trying to decide which company to work for, and I see a blog post from its CTO crowing about regularly checking in code on Saturdays and Sundays, I'd start backing slowly away. And when I got to the bit that said "AI has made me three times as productive," I'd turn and run. Your job at the top is, more than anything else, pushing down a healthy culture. That includes things like setting an example of not…

(Author here): I hear what you’re saying, though I’ve never “crowed about regularly checking code in on Saturdays and Sundays” and I think that’s a false characterization of my article. Do I love to code? For sure. Is it something I do on the weekends? Generally yes because it’s something incredibly fun for me, and it gives me a lot of energy. Now, is it an expectation I have of my team? No, it’s not because I want a…

I'm guessing you are ~28, maybe married and no kids.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#263

Post by ghaff »

ludwik wrote: post #241
ghaff wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because, title notwithstanding, they may not be the person solely responsible for technical decisions especially at the detailed (or macro) level.

There is a big leap between them not being the sole person responsible for technical decisions and them not even necessarily having a seat at the table for technology direction. The former is understandable. Later - quite surprising.

I'm not sure what I wrote that's contrary to any of that? Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "probably"? There are a lot of people responsible for the technical direction of a large company of which the CTO is important but hardly the only one.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#265

Post by holoduke »

Been there done that. As a cto you don't spend time with details. Impossible to go deep and wide at the same time. Super humans don't exist. Fine to coach or teach people by coding. But shipping weekend products and bypassing team processes isn't really motivating. Apply for a dev job instead.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#266

Post by ghaff »

YZF wrote: post #259
acron0 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can the Chief Technical Officer not be the one chiefly responsible for technology decisions?

I thought it's typically Chief Technology Officer In most companies I've been a part off, including multiple >$1B tech companies, the CTO's focus is not on the engineering. That's the job of a VP Engineering or some similar position. CTO (which will sometimes have a "CTO office") is to work besides the engineering on investigating new technologies and ideas that are beyond what the engineering organization would have…

I've seen both. A CTO office that also leads engineering--typically via a direct report to the CTO--and an organization where the CTO is largely an external evangelist (typically with a small staff) while engineering is a separate organization--though hopefully aligned. The view here where CTO is also the head of day-to-day engineering operations and technical vision is more of a small company/startup thing. The two are often separated to at least some degree at larger operations.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#267

Post by Kudos »

johnjwang wrote: post #261
sa-code wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t particularly enjoy building orgs and figuring out people stuff. Engineering management involves navigating interpersonal dynamics, performance reviews, and organizational design. These are crucial functions, but they’re not where my strengths lie. This bit got me. It's a direct quote from the linked post for those who haven't read it

(Author here) I stand by this comment and I think it’s really important for engineers to recognize that everyone has different places where they gain and lose energy. My team and I have been extremely lucky in hiring Joe, our excellent head of engineering, and an extremely strong set of engineering managers. Not to mention incredibly strong product and user experience management. I think it’s pretty obvious that my a…

You mention in the article you have no direct reports. Who does engineering report into in that case?

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#268

Post by blinkymach12 »

The struggle I found in coding as a CTO was that executive team priorities would come along that would take precedence over my ability to maintain my coding contributions, and in my experience no developer team wants to inherit and maintain code from their CTO. I found myself ultimately more drawn to coding tasks that improved developer experience or validated proof-of-concept work.

I agree with the author that CTO positions are incredibly varied, so I appreciate them sharing what works for them personally and in their organization, even if it doesn't match what has worked for me.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#269

Post by scrubs »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #67

Man, if I'm trying to decide which company to work for, and I see a blog post from its CTO crowing about regularly checking in code on Saturdays and Sundays, I'd start backing slowly away. And when I got to the bit that said "AI has made me three times as productive," I'd turn and run. Your job at the top is, more than anything else, pushing down a healthy culture. That includes things like setting an example of not…

Agree. Let me say much the same through a parallel line of observation: maybe you dont need a this cto or any cto? Maybe you need to move this guy to sales.

Goodness gracious corporate america. Can we PLEASE stop with hustle and bs?

You ever heard buffet or munger say everyday they do some bill keeping in a double entry accounting system and AI makes them better? Never. Why? Because when you and your org are competent you're not constantly on the hussle. My guess if they need to, they do and as they have things on their mind they don't have time to blog about.

People know what management at Berkshire Hathaway stands for. Case closed.

Competent upper management can be a boon for orgs esp on cross functional management which builds the org and keeps ia from infighting and running in 10x different directions. This guy isn't that. Moreover that means other people on the board don't know that either.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#270

Post by [deleted] »

libraryofbabel wrote: post #168
dbbk wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why are you the CTO!! Dude just wants to be a staff engineer

He mentions he has nobody reporting to him. That sounds like he’s really a staff engineer with a vanity CTO title, plus a lot of sway in strategic decision making. It’s not a guaranteed recipe for disaster, but it depends critically on his relationship with whoever actually manages the engineering org. If they don’t pull in the same direction, things go south very quickly and you end up with a little civil war. Eithe…

[deleted]
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