Stop Writing Code Everyday
theniravshah.comMore often than not I've seen founders completely neglect the mundane business of the day to day running of the company. Usually at the expense of their most loyal early employees, if not at the expense of the entire business itself.
It has come to a point where I've pretty much had it with those serial-entrepreneur types who pride themselves on having started an x-number of start-ups.
If you're incapable of, or simply completely uninterested in, running a business, don't start one. It doesn't make you a courageous entrepreneur, it makes you and adrenaline junkie who gets their kicks at the expense of others.
None of this is limited to code or tech in general. I've seen it in all kinds of areas. You may love doing X, but once you start a company doing X, running that company becomes is your job, not doing X.
If you're a founder/CEO and you've hired others to code, for you coding is a now hobby you can pick up in whatever spare time you have (probably none). To do it inside your own company when you should be taking care of your company and the people in it is selfish and self-indulgent.
I agree!
One common problem I see with tech founders/CEOs is they tend to get into their comfort zone i.e. coding, every time they face a business challenge.
This is especially true for first time entrepreneurs, for whom running a business is a new thing.
@bowlofpetunias absolutely agreed!
And I thought he would recommend spending times with family and friends, reading books and taking walks.
:) That's important too!
I was expecting much more from that headline. The point is that you shouldn't do Don't Break The Chain because you might have other responsibilities? I don't see how it contradicts the original article's advice and I also don't think it was aimed toward CEOs.
I am not against Don't break the chain philosophy for people who want to be top notch developers.
This was just an attempt to give a different point of view for technologists who are interested in building a business.
In particular Don't Break The Chain is certainly applicable for CEOy tasks, too.
While i don't agree with this completely there is some truth to it. I ran an accelerator funded gaming startup for 2 years and was obsessed with development and coding. Most of the real CEO work was done on the side without much focus. In the end i think that played a big part in failing, because ultimately we ran out of money before profits were healthy. This could have been prevented if i had talked to investors earlier and more, focusing on the vision and shorter term goals to keep liquidity in check.
It's not that i didn't see it coming miles away, but it was still too late.
@kayoone - I also used to code everyday - it was definitely a good practice.
However, I realized, that I am not able to focus on management - which is also important.
I still code at least 4 days a week (including weekends).
However, doing it every day, I don't think it is mandatory.
And i thought the article will somehow tell us that jeresig argument to code everyday was wrong.
i genuinely thought that the article should do justice by putting the same effort as jeresig post. Yeah OP argument that "CEO job is not only coding" is not wrong but i expect OP will argue that "code is not the onpy thing developer like jeresig do" based on the headline.
Agreed. My post is targeted more towards technologists who are interested in building a business. For those who want to be top developers, I recommend to write code on a regular basis.
Thanks for your input, I have updated the post to state the same.
It's so classic that a popular post pops up and the next day we have its inverted version.
I thought this before reading the article. The context 'as CEO' takes the article in a different direction than just the expected don't code everyday mantra.
That's the beauty of having different point of views - we can discuss, learn from each other and follow what we think is right.
The web site has severe UX problems.. It is first loading, then loading and again loading... Go back does not work neither.
Sorry about that. Is it accessible now?
I am using blogger. Should switch soon. Here is the same post on Medium: https://medium.com/p/362c7c6176b8
Now fine..
"I rarely write code, but when I do..."
Can anybody come up with a good ending? :)
I write tests??
This is a good one for testing:
http://www.troll.me/2011/08/31/the-most-interesting-man-in-t...
For those who build stuff and hire vendors.. Is it better to hire vendors that know technical stuff or any vendor will do the same job more or less if they are correctly briefed about the product?
@smallfluffycat - Hiring external vendors can work very well at times. It is a part of recruitment. I try to get the best person for that role for what I can afford. Full time in house or an external vendor - doesn't matter.