I lead a frontend team. I'm still in the code most days.

I started working straight out of vocational school, pulling fiber into villas in Bali. Took a pay cut to under half my salary along the way. Did the degree at night, and was leading a team of five at twenty-two, nine months before I finished it.

Code is usually the easy part. Most of what slows projects down is unclear requirements, people politely agreeing to slightly different things, or teams quietly working toward different definitions of done.