[mattmanser]

This guy's in for a shock when he's built it and they do not come...

I like how utterly brazen his job titles are, he was the 'Director of Engineering' of a team of him, and is now the 'Co-founder and Editor' of his own blog.

[qz2]

When I ran a one man contract outfit is sign myself off as weird titles such as Grand Hegemon and Eternal Leader occasionally on emails to see if anyone noticed. Nope!

No one gives a crap about your title apart from HR and your ego.

[exdsq]

If a title is too disingenuous it’d actually put me off the company... your examples are great, but a director of engineering for a department of one is just strange.

[barumi]

I agree, such pompous and self aggrandizing titles convey the idea that the person behind it has a tendency to try to defraud others by portraying himself as an authority that he is not. It's like introducing ourselves to others as head chef because we made ourselves a sandwich.

[hirako2000]

Yes, but he took the jump. Are you saying he used to be standing on prestigious ground but landed in mud after his backflip?

[barumi]

Taking jumps means nothing. And his choice of absurd and self aggrandizing titles lead me to doubt he ever stood on prestigious ground, at least acknowledged by others.

[rellekio]

In general it comes down to marketing budget, networking, and luck. Both start up, self found, or otherwise.

That or having a good idea that isn't just marketing. No matter what organization your in there is internal marketing and external in terms of what we produce. I say that as sometimes despite what we advertise as ground breaking is just a web form plugged into a dockerfile.

[vanillacupcake]

Helping Medium creators make a living while keeping the simple / ad-free experience of Medium is an interesting arbitrage opportunity until you prove it out and Medium integrates it into their core product offering.

[ZephyrBlu]

I think it's more likely that the product gets acquired than Medium builds it out themselves.