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Why I code as a CTO

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Re: Why I code as a CTO

#71

Post by ctxc »

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…

Flabbergasted to say the least. Dude do your job. Fix the process. Don't set a bad example.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#72

Post by kittikitti »

The amount of commentators that downright oppose and ridicule a CTO coding is why enshittification is so pervasive. If a CTO understands the codebase to the point where they can contribute to it, I presume that's a good thing. I sense so much fear of actual engineering and technology in the comments and it really highlights why startups are failing to innovate and create compelling products.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#74

Post by kittikitti »

submeta wrote: post #54

I have a question to the CTOs here, honestly asking: How can you have your team work on cutting edge technology without understanding the technology by getting your hands dirty, open your terminal, tinker with the technology, look into it, play with it, try to get a grasp of it. How?

The backlash is really telling of how bad things have gotten when a Chief Technology Officer coding in a software startup is disqualifying.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#75

Post by dilyevsky »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #69
fsckboy wrote: post #66

> People assume CTOs who code are either working on pet projects that never ship or doing ceremonial code reviews. people don't think that. people think CTOs who code may not be doing the leadership, managerial, or biz dev aspects of their job, or something like, why is he called CTO and not "engineer" or "architect" or "lead"?

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...

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#76

Post by dilyevsky »

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…

> That's something you're willing to share out loud? Your company's technical process (which you're fully in control of, Mr. CTO) is so cumbersome that it seriously hinders your ability to execute

This is exactly what someone who can't be easily unseated should be doing at a company - demonstrate to middle management that the process they've constructed is whack and take away excuses for not delivering. CEO or someone else on the founding team should be doing that to sales, marketing, etc as well

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#77

Post by dilyevsky »

indigodaddy wrote: post #59

Is it common for a CTO to not have any direct reports?

Yes, usually company hires someone with a title of "vp of eng" or similar and have them do hr-mandated "people management". CTO is then freed up to do strategy and whatever else and he/she typically has the power to organize work outside of official reporting chain anyway. Not saying I'm a fan of this arrangement but it's pretty common and not the worst way to handle things.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#78

Post by dilyevsky »

submeta wrote: post #54

I have a question to the CTOs here, honestly asking: How can you have your team work on cutting edge technology without understanding the technology by getting your hands dirty, open your terminal, tinker with the technology, look into it, play with it, try to get a grasp of it. How?

Unfortunately this meme that CTO and other members of executive team only supposed to be doing "thought leadership" is really pervasive now

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#79

Post by emilsoman »

rpdillon wrote: post #8

Possibly unpopular, but this is an interesting topic, so I'll post my counterpoint. The question is: what are you not doing that is in the list of CTO responsibilities because you're coding? One of the reasons stated why you do this is "because you enjoy it", and on the list of reasons you need to do it is there are only a handful of people in the org that can ship new product surface area. That's...concerning. That…

> do you find yourself developing the MVP of a particular feature to "get water through the pipes" and then handing that off to some other team to get it to "production ready"?

I liked your take and curious to know what you think a CTO should be doing here

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#80

Post by mobeigi »

I appreciated the sentiment but I do wonder how on earth a CTO has enough time to write one line of code, let along several thousands. Even before reaching the C-suite roles, higher ups tend to be in meetings all day, back to back. In the short amount of non-meeting time they find, they typically have to do other admin related things or information sharing.

I guess that CTO uses weekends or works super long hours which I is fine if they don't push that expectation onto others.

I'd only really expect a CTO in an early stage startup to be pushing code like this (and eventually stepping back when they grow).

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