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Has this ever happened in another software company? I can think of Sergei Brin, but did he really produce after exiting CEO? Or David Filo of Yahoo with the same comment.

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John Carmack and Dave Cutler have always been individual code contributors, regardless of their titles and management responsibilities.

They never cut out management/executive duties completely (as in Mitchell's case), but they came somewhat close.

Carmack has been pretty explicit that he is not, nor does he want to be, a manager (either in the executive sense, or the “technical lead” sense). He sees himself more as a senior craftsman.

John Carmack did something kind of similar a billion years ago at Id.

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