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You’ve been chosen to be a CTO, this usually means that you either did well in the company or were hired because of a good track record. So keep doing this + keep things simple, plan ahead, learn from colleagues, share knowledge. Stay humble, confess mistakes, ask for genuine feedback and advice.

Books and blogs have a limited anecdotal value (sometimes it is high but the effort is also high). I’ve learned more from individual HN comments and actual work experience and mistakes than any book.



I mean this is decent advice, but slightly odd given you could easily have plugged your site here AND actually given the OP what they asked for :-)

Maybe it’s some reverse psychology thing. Ok I’ll do it, you evil genius…

https://hackernewsbooks.com

PS CTOs aren’t always chosen, many are self-appointed as founders or co-founders (possibly in this case too).

Chosen implies you’ve been subject to external assessment, self-appointed is a different matter altogether (ie. you may be extremely aware of possible knowledge/experience gaps that you need to quickly fill).

To add my own suggestion, I think High Output Management by Andy Grove is an excellent resource (not just for CTOs)


That is a very interesting line of thinking, my comment was kind of the opposite - I find that after reading a couple of good books on a certain topic, the rate of learning goes down rapidly compared to the steady amount I get from HN comments and experience. About hackernewsbooks - it's not mine since many years and I am not affiliated with it, I am just the one who built it and sold it. It's still nice though.


I didn’t mean to give you a hard time - I think you’re right about the limited returns on reading after a while!

It just seemed a shame not to mention hackernewsbooks since it is probably a good resource for the OP :)

It makes more sense though if you have sold it! Congrats on that.




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