Dustin Harden runs technology for Clear Creek ISD, a Texas district where NASA engineers serve on the school board, students earn National Merit honours, and 12-year-olds collaborate on Discord to outsmart the district's filters.

In this episode, Dustin sits down with James for an honest, grounded conversation about leadership growth, ego, and the slow unlearning that turns a 26-year-old "smartest guy in the room" into a servant-minded CTO.

What we cover:

• Landing his first director role at 26, beating a candidate with a doctorate in education

• Why kids who hack the filters often become future district employees

• The summer his team sat him down and said "Dustin, we're tired"

• What ed-tech vendors actually need to do to earn a district's trust

• Why K-12 CTOs share openly across districts, and why that matters

• Driving innovation in a shrinking district with tightening budgets

• The "loudest person wins" instinct, and how to unlearn it

A candid look at modern educational technology leadership, what it takes, what it costs, and why the best leaders eventually stop trying to be the smartest person in the room.