Modern CTO by Joel Beasley
Developers are not CTOs, but developers can learn how to be CTOs.
In Modern CTO, Joel Beasley provides readers with an in-depth road map on how to successfully navigate the unexplored and jagged transition between these two roles. Drawing from personal experience, Joel gives a refreshing take on the challenges, lessons, and things to avoid on this journey.
These are the topics you’ll find in the book:
A Modern CTO knows…
- Developers are not CTOs
- The spaghetti code MVP epidemic
- Over-engineering is a problem
- Whether to hire, buy, or out-build their competitor
- How not to scale prematurely
- How to solve any problem
- How to work with programers when you aren’t one
- UX mistakes to watch out for
- When to speak up
- When to hire & fire consultants
- How to analyze failure
- How to bounce back from unforeseen constraints
- Answer the question: “How difficult is it to code…?”
- How to avoid the “bottom of the ninth” guy
- When to respond to feedback
- How to validate an expert in any field
- How to effectively communicate complex ideas
Favorite quotes
If I rest on past achievements, I’ll never grow.
LEVERAGE OTHERS’ EXPERIENCE Books condense a lifetime of experience into a few hours’ read. Powerful right?
There are only two reasons you write bad code:
1)You know how to write good code, but you choose to write bad code. 2)You don’t know how to write good code. And both suck.
As the CTO, you must have a business focus.
Always return to your core goals. […] I make sure each core goal has a clearly defined “why?” behind it, this way if I ever get lost, I go back to my “why.”
– Reference to “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek.
When you’re the boss, remember this golden rule: Ask people what they think instead of telling them what to do.
If I can’t asses the human component, I can’t lead a team. […] Team composition carries as much or perhaps even greater weight than programming expertise.
As CTO, if you can’t explain value simply, it means you don’t understand the business value behind your technology.