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Comment by cgrealy | Hacker News Reader

Being "technical" is a full time job. The idea that anyone "above" you should be able to do your job is not only ridiculous, it's insulting to the engineers.

The CTO should be able to have an informed and intelligent conversation about technical issues at a high level, but expecting them to be able to write code is not realistic.

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If your company is under 100 people and only a small percentage of them are engineers, the CTO better be able to code. (Whether they actually do or not is another matter, but they should understand the details, and with tech, that means code.)

I think I’d like to see CTOs have come from the frontlines and decided they had a larger interest in running the technical side of the business and then grow into it. Someone who once did the job and now is much higher level still to some degree knows how the sausage is made and can be a more effective leader imo.

Absolutely agree that a background in technology is important! I’m talking about the idea that someone who started as a dev many years ago is going to be able to write code in a current environment with the same level of skill as someone who does this everyday.

The article doesn't say they should spend time writing code. It says they should be good enough to be employed by you to do so (if they weren't being employed as the CTO). It means that they ought to be ABLE to have an informed and intelligent conversation about technical issues at a LOW level if need be. They should't need to very often, and never to actually put code into production. But it's a vital skill for hiring and tie-breaking in case of conflict further down the hierarchy.

I agree. I think the author of the article would have done better if they had focused on their list of five important CTO skills rather than dragging coding skills into the narrative.

Amongst other necessary leadership skills, I do agree with the author that CTOs should be:

1. Good judges of quality.

2. Able to make good tradeoff decisions.

3. Able to earn respect.

4. Able to inspire teams to greatness.

5. Able to recruit top talent.

However, it isn't necessary for a CTO to be able to do everyone else's job to have these skills and be a great CTO.

Doesn't have to be. But if software plays a major role in the company, then it is certainly an advantage if the CTO knows how to code.

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