From Gaming Addict to CTO: My Journey of Breaking Barriers

Early Passion and First Coding Experience

The story begins with a childhood obsessed with arcade and console games, leading to a pivotal visit to a university computer lab where the author first wrote a "Hello World" program, sparking a lifelong fascination with code.

University and Turning Point

After a disappointing college entrance exam score, the author was invited by a senior to explore a computer lab, where he realized that games were built with code. This epiphany motivated him to study hard, eventually passing the university entrance exam and enrolling in a computer science program.

Career at Tencent and 360

Graduating with offers from Tencent, a state‑owned bank, and Autodesk, he chose Tencent. After a year he moved to 360, where he grew from senior engineer to department technical manager, leading dozens of people and multiple product lines, earning stock options and rapid promotions.

From Technical Expert to Manager

Key transitions involved shifting from individual contribution to team contribution, deepening business and product knowledge, and learning to coach and promote talent. The author emphasizes three mindset changes: adopting a team‑first perspective, mastering both technology and business, and moving from managing self to managing others.

AI‑Driven Remote Support Solution

At 360, the team analyzed remote‑support scenarios and discovered that 90% of cases could be automated with AI. They built an AI‑assisted remote‑control system that filtered out half of invalid queries, automatically diagnosed user machines, and routed genuine issues to experts, increasing daily handled tickets tenfold and cutting required staff from 500 to 50.

Entrepreneurship and Leadership Lessons

Leaving 360, the author founded a startup, faced the harsh realities of being a CEO, and later joined an online education company as VP of technology, scaling a team to nearly 100 people. He stresses the importance of strategic focus, deep product‑business integration, and leveraging technology to drive growth.

CTO Perspective on Strategy and Culture

In subsequent CTO roles, he highlights the need for strategic thinking, bridging technology with business, building a strong engineering culture, and understanding commercial models. He outlines four pillars of personal success: ability (deep expertise), efficiency (methods and tools), leverage (team and product impact), and mindset (critical and unconventional analysis).

Key insights: shift from personal to team contribution, combine technology with business insight, prioritize strategic focus over tactical hustle, and continuously evolve thinking to drive both personal and organizational breakthroughs.