There goes your company

Worked with a company last year whose CTO was one of the smartest engineers I have met. Over nine months he wrote 94% of the code. 1,601 commits. He approved all 158 merges himself. Half his work landed between 8pm and 6am. He was the only one on call.

The founder told me, "Every morning I don't know where to look." The only way to find out whether customer work had run overnight was to ask him.

Then a customer counted 88 stuck charges by hand. The fix was written the same day. Two days later it still had not shipped, because only he could push the button.

Brilliant engineer running your tech. No second person. There goes your company, one quiet night at a time.

-Christopher