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One thing I notice when reading CTO/CIOs' thoughts on their role, regardless of their experience level or how they attained the position, is that those who ment
by ajcp 2y ago
One thing I notice when reading CTO/CIOs' thoughts on their role, regardless of their experience level or how they attained the position, is that those who mention being "hands-on" – that is, coding or "being technical" – often lament that being good at their job prevents them from indulging in it. I find this sentiment telling, valuable, and a marker of a good technical leader.
Those who don't mention it might be good administrators, procurement officers, or even strategists, but they don't strike me as good technical leaders. Perhaps that's still being a good CTO, but I'm not so sure.
An HN user who is a CTO/CIO of some repute at a medical company (if I recall correctly) had a comment that has stuck with me (paraphrasing): the marker of a good CTO isn't necessarily someone who is in the technical minutiae, rather someone who wants to be in the technical minutiae; someone who is technically very curious.
- sponaugle 2y ago"someone who is technically very curious." By far the most useful quality in a CTO, but I'm a CTO and have said that exact thing so I'm biased. I have met hundreds of CTOs in my career so far. It is surprising how quickly I can tell if the person is curious or not, and how often that one attribute ends up being a marker of someone who is extraordinary.
- ajcp 2y agoFunny enough it was you I was attempting to paraphrase :)
- sponaugle 2y agoHa! It is a funny thing.. one time I was trying to remember something specific about a calibration table in a Subaru ECU and I googled it and found a great answer.. and sure enough it was something I posted years before. Ah the beauty of forgetting!
- ajcp 2y agoHaha, I've actually had the exact opposite problem: I was looking for a specific answer I knew I had only to find an obviously wrong answer on Stack, think to myself "who is this moron with his bag of lies", only to find it was me. Ah the pain of remembering!