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Ask HN: Best Books for CTO

44 points by lnalx 6y ago

Hi HN, I don't have a CTO position yet, but it's my career goal. Have you an excellent book to read about how to be a good CTO? Thanks

Terretta 6y ago
Big business style CTO or Silicon Valley style CTO? Startup or enterprise? Technology play or product play? Consumer or commercial? Front end or platform or infrastructure? Regardless, you need a framework for thinking about technology and the jobs to be done, no matter which dimension you’re interested in. This is the ticket: Technology Strategy Patterns by Eben Hewitt October 2018 Technologists who want their ideas heard, understood, and funded are often told to speak the language of business—without really knowing what that is. This book’s toolkit provides architects, product managers, technology managers, and executives with a shared language—in the form of repeatable, practical patterns and templates—to produce great technology strategies. Author Eben Hewitt developed 39 patterns over the course of a decade in his work as CTO, CIO, and chief architect for several global tech companies. With these proven tools, you can define, create, elaborate, refine, and communicate your architecture goals, plans, and approach in a way that executives can readily understand, approve, and execute. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/technology-strategy-patterns/9781492040866/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/technology-strategy-pat... https://smile.amazon.com/Technology-Strategy-Patterns-Architecture-ebook/dp/B07JJNSP92/ https://smile.amazon.com/Technology-Strategy-Patterns-Archit... With that in mind, you can then absorb any other book recommendations that may come from this thread, with a solid context and framing in which to map and understand them.
qnsi 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24126065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24126065 and there was another thread about resources for CTOs but cant find it
epc 6y ago
This was just posted recently: https://github.com/kuchin/awesome-cto https://github.com/kuchin/awesome-cto
- hbcondo714 6y ago
  Yes, discussed here 3 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284750
Jennifer9918910 6y ago
I'm available for sex, Please just follow my link https://rebrand.ly/sexygirls007 https://rebrand.ly/sexygirls007
KingOfCoders 6y ago
"The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results"
bwh2 6y ago
I have a collection of books for CTOs on my website that you might enjoy: https://www.briansnotes.io/audience/cto/ https://www.briansnotes.io/audience/cto/ The Manager's Path is another I highly recommend. That book provides the most detail I've seen about the career path to CTO and changing expectations along the way.
zn44 6y ago
Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
cpach 6y ago
You might like this one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_at_Work https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_at_Work
cecja 6y ago
John Gall - Systemantics
Jugurtha 6y ago
Not a book, but here's a lengthy reply[0] to a thread that contains links to other replies to similar threads. You may skip the first part and go directly to the links at the bottom, as the first paragraphs addressed what lead to the learning and taking over without a transition period. The links are more for technical roles across the spectrum (individual contributor -- CXO). They explain how to leverage time, gain skills, align with a team, communicate with stakeholders at different technical depths and abstraction levels, institutionalize knowledge, build product, etc. - [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988
poushkar 6y ago
I think a lot of books from this list are applicable: https://techleadcompass.com https://techleadcompass.com (shameless plug).

44 points by lnalx 6y ago

Hi HN, I don't have a CTO position yet, but it's my career goal. Have you an excellent book to read about how to be a good CTO? Thanks

Terretta 6y ago

Big business style CTO or Silicon Valley style CTO? Startup or enterprise? Technology play or product play? Consumer or commercial? Front end or platform or infrastructure? Regardless, you need a framework for thinking about technology and the jobs to be done, no matter which dimension you’re interested in. This is the ticket: Technology Strategy Patterns by Eben Hewitt October 2018 Technologists who want their ideas heard, understood, and funded are often told to speak the language of business—without really knowing what that is. This book’s toolkit provides architects, product managers, technology managers, and executives with a shared language—in the form of repeatable, practical patterns and templates—to produce great technology strategies. Author Eben Hewitt developed 39 patterns over the course of a decade in his work as CTO, CIO, and chief architect for several global tech companies. With these proven tools, you can define, create, elaborate, refine, and communicate your architecture goals, plans, and approach in a way that executives can readily understand, approve, and execute. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/technology-strategy-patterns/9781492040866/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/technology-strategy-pat... https://smile.amazon.com/Technology-Strategy-Patterns-Architecture-ebook/dp/B07JJNSP92/ https://smile.amazon.com/Technology-Strategy-Patterns-Archit... With that in mind, you can then absorb any other book recommendations that may come from this thread, with a solid context and framing in which to map and understand them.

qnsi 6y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24126065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24126065 and there was another thread about resources for CTOs but cant find it

epc 6y ago

This was just posted recently: https://github.com/kuchin/awesome-cto https://github.com/kuchin/awesome-cto

hbcondo714 6y ago
Yes, discussed here 3 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284750

Jennifer9918910 6y ago

I'm available for sex, Please just follow my link https://rebrand.ly/sexygirls007 https://rebrand.ly/sexygirls007

KingOfCoders 6y ago

"The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results"

bwh2 6y ago

I have a collection of books for CTOs on my website that you might enjoy: https://www.briansnotes.io/audience/cto/ https://www.briansnotes.io/audience/cto/ The Manager's Path is another I highly recommend. That book provides the most detail I've seen about the career path to CTO and changing expectations along the way.

zn44 6y ago

Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt

cpach 6y ago

You might like this one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_at_Work https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_at_Work

cecja 6y ago

John Gall - Systemantics

Jugurtha 6y ago

Not a book, but here's a lengthy reply[0] to a thread that contains links to other replies to similar threads. You may skip the first part and go directly to the links at the bottom, as the first paragraphs addressed what lead to the learning and taking over without a transition period. The links are more for technical roles across the spectrum (individual contributor -- CXO). They explain how to leverage time, gain skills, align with a team, communicate with stakeholders at different technical depths and abstraction levels, institutionalize knowledge, build product, etc. - [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988

poushkar 6y ago

I think a lot of books from this list are applicable: https://techleadcompass.com https://techleadcompass.com (shameless plug).