Here's an alternative to the "business guy" vs "hacker" debate which sometimes happens on here. I started out as a business guy 15 years ago and employed peopl

Here's an alternative to the "business guy" vs "hacker" debate which sometimes happens on here. I started out as a business guy 15 years ago and employed people to write software. My main focus was, and is, starting and running businesses and this was what I felt natural doing. What I did though, which made the difference, is that I learned to program. Cold Fusion at first, then Perl, a bit of PHP and now Python. I'll be the first to admit... "I'm not very good - and damned slow"... but what this experiene has done is given me a greater level of understanding for what is required, what is possible and has given me empathy with anyone I work with who is coding. We have the same issues with "Designer" Vs "Hacker" and we solve it (or attempt to) by educating people. For the hacker, one thing to remember is that often the business guys (or gals) strength might actually be in "doing business" allowing you to concentrate on what you love. For the business guy you need to remember that you are employing people for a skill that you don't have and that there's no place for arrogance or posturing within the business - work together and compete against the competition Where would Apple be without Woz, where without Steve Jobs?