December, 2024
From Fairydust to Impact: The Future of the CTO Role
“My single biggest gripe [in Technology] is the extent to which we believe in magic fairy dust.”In this episode of Cut The Onion, we’re peeling back the layers with Rebecca Parsons – Board Member, Author, Speaker and Former CTO/CTO Emerita of ThoughtWorks!As a long-term tech devotee, she’s left her mark across academia, government research, nonprofits, startups, manufacturing, and massive enterprises. She’s a passionate advocate for programming languages, AI, and evolutionary computation — all while keeping her feet firmly planted in the ever-evolving tech community.In her own words:“I’m a geek through and through. I can’t imagine not being in the technology community. That’s just who I am.”In this episode, we chat about:
- The myth of “magic fairy dust” technology and solutions
- Balancing fairness and profit in data collection (and the risks of using proxies for race, gender, and religion)
- Performative DEI, personal values, and advice to future selves
- The future of the CTO role: will we see more combined CTO/product roles?
- Continuous Delivery and DORA Metrics: transforming deployment practices
- The value of saying “I don’t know” in a constantly changing world
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