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“I want it all and I want it now”

Do you want it all? Should you?

Jason Cole has some wise words on the various hires you can make to make your life easier as a technical founder.

There’s a myth in our industry that you can write code and manage people, and that every engineer should do both if they want to advance their career. While I know people who are good at both, they’re generally the rare kinds of people who can hold two opposing concepts in their minds at the same time. And they never get to straddle those two areas for long; they either become a senior people leader or a senior technologist.

This is the old CTO vs VP of Engineering split.

So, as you grow in a company as a technical founder (or even an early engineer) you need to make a decision. And when you are hiring, instead of searching for someone who can wear all the hats that you used to, find someone who can take two or three of your hats and put them on. It’s the beginning of the transition from generalists to specialists.

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