| I basically did this for a couple years around 33. I was the highest paid IC for a multi billion dollar "digital transformation". I was writing code in 5+ languages, doing hardware retrofits, had r/w access to every system, climbing ladders to deploy hardware for my own skunkworks projects. The whole thing was crazy. I mean actually insane. I look at my productivity from the time period and it blows me away. Really enjoyed it. Being the one guy who was damned adamant I wouldn't manage anyone kept me out of the political fray as well. I drank and I knew things. I probably had more freedom and access than anyone ever has had at a company that size, I mean they literally ended up paying for me to have some degree of DHS clearance to operate unrestricted in passport zones, it was wild. Is it good for a company to have those roles or not? I don't know, after starting several companies and also working in corporate, that was the most fun I think I've had. Moving the needle, unfucking things, reducing complexity. Providing accountability where there was none before. I left because they wanted to me to move. I was flown out every Monday and flew back every Friday but I didn't want to move cities and I had a startup I wanted to launch. I took 3 months traveling and then 2 months writing code for my 4th startup. There are _almost_ no universal rules, my work saved them an insane amount of money and generated even more, but the methods only made sense to dig them out of the completely unaccountable traffic jam they had built for themselves. If you ever read the James Bond books as a kid, there is inner monologue explaining why he is so overt, his whole modus operandi is to be conspicuous and to shake things loose in opaque situations. When your works starts holding peoples feet to the fire you have to come extremely correct and it paints a target on your back until you have sufficient track record. It helped me learn a lot about myself and ultimately taking the time to inhabit the role fully and lose myself in it helped me understand what I really value. |