If you’re the CTO and you haven’t programmed in a long time, I recommend taking some current project and implementing a new feature or fixing a couple of bugs.
It’s like being a “secret shopper” in a supermarket. It may turn out that the goods are expired, the displays are a mess, the floor is dirty, the cashiers are rude, and in general you’ll never set foot in that supermarket again.
And I bet the programmers are telling you how great everything is over there?