In mid 2010, when the big game project in Stardock Entertainment was floundering, I had to take over the reigns of designer, producer, and lead developer. And while I can design games, I’m not even remotely in the league of say a Derek Paxton or a Jon Shafer so it’s a non-ideal situation. And while I can project manage, it’s insanely non-cost effective for me to do that given the sheer number of projects going on company-wide. And while I can do software development, I’m no where in the same ballpark as some of our top developers on the non-games side of the business.
So what exactly is it I do? What is my value-add? Basically I’m an oxymoron. That is, I’m the technologist-bean counter. I live my days in evaluating balance sheets, revenue projections, consumer trends, marketing analysis, technology reports, you name it. In a pinch, I can inject myself into any part of the business but it’s a last resort.
Running a business is a lot like playing a strategy game. You have resources, you have obstacles and you have goals. The object of the game is to use your resources to overcome the obstacles to achieve your goals. The “hard” part of this game is that there’s a lot of unknowns (a lot of fog of war), a lot of math, and a lot of dealing with human allies and opponents who are of various degrees of skill or ineptitude depending on what you’re dealing with.
Over time, I’ve used my generalist knowledge to recruit people who are a lot lot lot smarter than I am in a particular area and let them do their thing. I think that’s one of the reasons we have no voluntary turn-over here at Stardock (Mittens left I think 3 years ago or so) which is a pretty impressive statistic for a technology company these days. The key here being we let smart people do what they do with as little interference as possible. My job is to count the beans and know the tech.
Well it seems you're playing on ridiculous and still steamrolling. So kudos to you no matter what you do.
Are there plans to make a strategy game called Stardock: Frogboy Journals anytime soon? If so I recommend the default difficulty level be set at Ridiculous.
Though I'm not a fan of the paperwork minigame, so please make that optional in game settings.
I did write a game years ago called Entrepreneur back in the 90s.
Got sued by Entrepreneur Magazine for it. My first real taste of the human element of business affairs. Now it seems like there's always a lawsuit or two going on.
You forgot to tell that you're an expert AI developer too
Or are you intending to find someone better than you to occupy this function !?!
I think Brad may have advanced it enough to where the AI can design itself!
You forgot to add that you can't do a quick save and reload the Stardock "game" when things don't go your way!
I like beans.
Beans, beans, the magical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot. The more you toot, the better you feel. So eat your beans at every meal.
Now that I remember that old saying, aren't beans a legume? Magical legume doesn't quite fit the rhyme I guess. Mod request.
I think a good CEO surrounds themselves with good employees. Then it is just a matter of making sure they are happy and motivated.
The CEO of my company is a mid-60s ex-programmer. He still tries to get involved in database design and code changes (when he hasn't learned anything about the software industry for 20 years) and often mandates that we follow his ideas. Then, because he is so pig-headed, we have to spend weeks arguing about why his ideas aren't the proper way to do things. It's very frustrating and counter-productive.
One of the hardest things to find in technology seems to be technology leaders (not managers, leaders) who really have a solid understanding of software development fundamentals. They needn't be the best at any given thing--data modeling, writing Java classes, whatever--but to really be effective, they need to have a broad understanding of a lot of disciplines (math helps), and be able to make the leap to understanding "the business" (whether it's a game or the next app to handle corporate finance).
Just my 2c, of course.
From what I've seen, this is probably the single most important skill in a leader. The skill of knowing in general what those they lead are doing. Once you have a general idea, you start to see who has good ideas and who doesn't. It becomes a lot easier to anticipate results, too. Just don't get too attached.
It's also worth checking into something if the majority of the community is for/against something. Maybe not worth changing, but at least looking at.
Oh s-
AI Jedi Brad - you need an AI Padawan. Too many AI Sith to chase down while you run the Jedi Council. May the AI be with you, always.
[edit]
On a serious note, if I armchair quarterback for a moment, humbly realizing I'm not the CEO of a successful software company, what I'm trying to say is let someone else do the detailed work. Hire solid AI guys or gals, free up your time to pilot the ship, and play SD's products. Be at the 30,000 foot level, manage and step-in to help the AI team if needed, and play your games. Be there to guide AI development. There's a reason why Kirk had Scotty to fix the warp drive. If Shatner is fixing the warp drive, he's not on deck overacting which is where he needs to be.
Love the dialogue SD offers. I humbly think your company is growing to the point where you may need to consider extricating yourself from the day to day nuts and bolts of AI, if possible.
Yeah, just keep on growing the company Frogboy. Stardock is turning into something impressive.
Yea, if only so would Elemental ...
Gah. I'm geek enough to get hot for efficiency in its own right in a porno sort of way, but I'll be damned if I want to live in some sort of hell founded by a love/hate-child of Thomas Malthus and Ayn Rand.
Leaders need to be able to handle problems based in resource scarcity, but if they don't become attached to those who follow them, they are villains who deserve to be shunned or worse.
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