[BoxFour]

> This is not really a good analogy. Tech is different.

Why? Seriously: Give me a convincing reason why tech is different from every other field, where this happens regularly.

> I am not saying you should sit down and write code.

But that's the whole premise of this conversation. It's entirely possible to understand something deeply without doing the thing yourself.

It's entirely possible for a CTO to deeply understand technology without writing any code themselves, opening up a terminal, tinkering with anything, or even what individual contributors are doing day-to-day. I would actually say that's the hallmark of a good CTO.

[submeta]

Because one is an intellectual activity, the other is not. You cannot expect the 60+ year old coach to run and train with the team members. But you can as a CTO try out technology, open the terminal, run a docker container to see the technology. Otherwise you are too far away from the things you try to orchestrate. Here the analogy of a master chef comes to mind. She doesn't have to work with her sous-chefs, but it helps to be able to still master the knife, make sushi or make a Crème brûlée, or even an omelette. All while mostly focusing on the big picture.