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by simonw 1936 days ago
I don't think I've ever met a CTO who wouldn't benefit from a list like this - or who would deny that it would be useful.

The secret to getting good at management is to acknowledge that it is a huge, deep and learnable set of skills. The best managers I know are the ones who constantly seek to improve their skills, and "do the work" to improve.
2 comments
tpmx 1936 days ago
Makes me think of the two Lex Fridman podcasts with Jim Keller. The second one (last week) got quite fun/loose.

It's clear that Jim is constantly reading/actively improving, sometimes doing kinda unusual things, like having a specific strategy for priming his REM sleep by thinking a lot about some current problem combined with some kind of meditation exercise.

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sponaugle 1935 days ago
"I don't think I've ever met a CTO who wouldn't benefit from a list like this - or who would deny that it would be useful."

The most valuable thing for me, and I am a CTO, is exactly the reminder of the breadth of the list. Most of the areas of the list are things I am familiar with, but it is easy to let a few areas fall short. One of the key expectations of a CTO is broad expertise, which is a tall ask.

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tpmx 1935 days ago
> One of the key expectations of a CTO is broad expertise, which is a tall ask.

Being a generalist + working in many separate areas will get you there. It does take time to build experience. I guess you can accelerate it slightly by reading books, but really, most of the lessons are best learned by doing, I think.

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