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>Being a technical leader is a set of skills that is distinct from being a great IC

Sorry if I'm being dim - what's an IC?

Individual Contributor (ie working without others under you in the org chart)

Okay that makes sense, thank you.

Individual contributor, i.e. a non-leadership role

Ah, okay, thank you.

A non-managerial role*

If you're a senior IC and you're not exhibiting leadership in some way you're probably not going to be around for very long.

I agree with this and thus often find the term "IC" itself unfortunately prone to being misleading.

You're right, that's what it usually means. But gp was asking about it in the context of this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21377401

Here it's being used to contrast with both TL-ship and management.