Departing Autodesk CEO says he became dumber and less funny the moment he quit

Carl Bass is not planning to spend time with family - he's not sure they want him around

Carl Bass says quitting will mean people stop laughing at his jokes as we noted in passing yesterday, Autodesk's Carl Bass has stepped aside as CEO.

And now he's penned an unusually sincere missive explaining why.

Bass writes that “When I first became CEO, people asked me what it was like and I joked 'I immediately became smarter and funnier'.”

“So, starting tomorrow, I’m expecting the opposite.”

He expects a similar reaction at home, writing that “I am not leaving to spend more time with my family — that presumes my family wants to spend more time with me.”

“I will, however, be spending more time in my shop with my robots.” He has some other plans up his sleeve and plans to reveal them “in the next few months.”

Bass also does the stuff you'd expect in a marketing-sanitised farewell, thanking partners and customers. But when he thanks Autodesk's staff there's another outbreak of what reads suspiciously like sincerity when he says “As CEO, I got used to taking outsized credit (and blame), but I never once forgot who does all the hard work.”

He also says that since deciding to step down he's “... begun to even more keenly notice around me all the truly incredible things our customers have created using our tools. From buildings to cars and movies, workflows from conception to fabrication, we’ve made a huge impact on the industries we serve, and I’m proud of the respect we have for our customers and honor the trust they’ve put in us.”

Autodesk did more-than-decently under Bass' leadership, with its share price climbing nicely, many years of revenue growth and impressive diversification of products his legacy. ®