I'm "The CTO Advisor" - I still struggle with where to invest my time in learning new things. Should I pick up coding, deep dive into CI/CD, geek out on K8s, go deeper into networking, or learn some AI/ML? Or should I learn a new business skill?

It's OK not to know everything.

I have a whole data center at my disposal. I pay $5K/month in cage space and cloud connectivity. I could learn or build just about anything I want. I spend almost no time dinking around in it. It's where smart engineers such as @ThomTalksTech build things engineers care about.

I've never been as good as an engineer as someone like Thom or @DemitasseNZ. I depend on them to check my math. Is what I claim as possible even possible? Is what I'm saying impossible, impossible? My lane is connecting the business to the smart engineers.

I've doubled down on that. How do I put the smart engineers in a position to put vendor claims to test? That means I have to listen to the Intel, VMware, HPE, Dell, and Cohesity of the world. How do I identify their value and validate that value in a way my readers appreciate?

It also means I have to have the technical chops to call out BS when I hear it from a vendor. And it means I have to be able to draw on my years of engineering experience to see opportunities the vendors don't.

I also still have to advise customers. I have to hear, see, and taste what happens in the real world. I get some of that by running the #CTOAHI. But there's nothing like talking to a customer with $12,000,000 in AWS spend alongside HP/UX in their DC.

What do I do to stay sharp technically? I consume a lot of content. Deep diving occasionally into networking because it's where I started my career. It's why I do @TechFieldDay. They force me to stretch technically. You people keep me honest with fact-checking my musings.