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Comment by archagon | Hacker News Reader

I'd love to know how people like Sweeny and Carmack were able to transition from engine programmers to effective CEOs/CTOs of massive corporations. As monkish, introverted engineers, it surely would have required drastic changes in mindset and personality over the years. What steps were involved? Is there any advice to be gleamed for introverts who wish to become better leaders?

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I question how much of that transition they made though. They ARE decision makers by virtue of their knowledge and seniority, but they are not people managers. They still work mostly on technical problems (either as a lead or doing research). And from the little I read online, they strongly shun the managerial aspects of their positions, letting someone else deal with anything non-technical or that is not a personal pet peeve of them.

In many modern tech companies they'd instead be a (pretty powerful) VP of something and let someone else be the C*O to deal with the people/managerial aspects of the company.

Usually they get propped into leadership positions when they have a track record of getting others to "dream more, do more, become more".

Engineers as a breed usually run to mgmt/blame mgmt when they can't get their brethren to do things. So when an engineer shows up, who can get other engineers to follow, then that's one special unicorn you take care off, protect and support.

I’ve heard great things about https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow... as a general set of advice. The Rands leadership Slack is also a great community.

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