That is interesting. I'm a CTO, originally a CTO of a startup, now CTO of the much larger acquiring company. It is fascinating to see how different the CTO job can be across industries. I find my time is spent in almost the opposite direction, with the majority of it involving deep technical context switched rapidly.. and that really is the skill that I have need to refine the most - the ability apply high focus quickly. Cool to hear other stories.
The biggest accelerator, at least for me, was having a child. As anyone who has children know, the first few years are a long sequence of tasks interspersed with small breaks. If you want to get anything done, you have to be able to do it in small increments. On the hobby side for instance, I worked at keeping a running note log with my projects so I could walk in and actually make progress on a project when I only had 10 mins free. I carried a notebook with 'thought areas' that needed some thought applied, and if my daughter was sleeping I might crack it open and look at one of the problems and work on it.
The ability to do real, forward progressing complex work in small chunks has made a huge difference in both my personal life and my professional one. I suspect it will also be helpful as I get older, because eventually great memory skills fade!
I second this. Ok, I'm on the Manager schedule now. How do I still make things? Having kids puts you on the Manager schedule (interruptions are to be expected and blocks of time without pre-scheduled interruptions are rare) whether you like it or not.
