Loosing the friction

Becoming engineering manager and later CTO meant becoming a worse developer.

Not because I forgot how to code. Because I stopped feeling the friction.

I used to know when the build took too long. When a dependency broke randomly. When the deploy process made you hold your breath.

Now I have to ask people to describe pain I no longer experience.

You get promoted away from the thing that made you good at your job.

You lose the direct feedback loop. The thing that told you what actually mattered.

It’s a different kind of work. Sometimes I miss just feeling it myself.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​