> I currently manage no direct reports
So you're not an officer
> Because it’s what I love and what I’m good at. I don’t particularly enjoy building orgs and figuring out people stuff.
Was my first guess as well.
Why I code as a CTO
81–90 of 304 posts
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#82> 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…
Exactly. Most CTO's have tens if not hundreds of direct reports that rely on them regularly. Which is why their time must be used to support them leaving absolutely 0 time to do PR code contributions on the side (unless you work weekends).
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#83Man, 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 someon…
Cowboy development might fly in an early stage startup. But are you even really a CTO or are you just an overpaid mid-level developer?
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#84Man, 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 someon…
Trouble is, I don't think they'll just get it and then set about to changing the processes. Besides, the process doesn't come from the middle management, it originates from the top, usually the CTO.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#85I 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 whi…
Seems like the author has not yet learned to delegate and trust. I think it's an example of what not to do as a CTO.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#86Man, 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…
> regularly checking in code on Saturdays and Sundays
If you’re working on insurance SaaS, I agree.
If you’re building hard tech, I’d disagree entirely.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#87Man, 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…
> regularly checking in code on Saturdays and Sundays If you’re working on insurance SaaS, I agree. If you’re building hard tech, I’d disagree entirely.
[flagged]
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#88[deleted]
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#89I 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 whi…
If you are Founder/CEO/CTO of a company it could be up to them to define what their workday looks like though.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#90Man, 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…
Frankly if you’re a CTO you aren’t incentivized by a salary. It makes sense in this case no different than you’d code on the weekends for your side hustle.
It only doesn’t make sense when this jackass thinks the salaried engineer needs this “grit”.
C-levels aren’t supposed to be “model employees”. The incentive structure is wildly weighted in their favor. Instead you should ask them to understand the difference, which is asking a lot of these sociopaths, but I digress.