6 ms·

Instead of Learn to Code, Learn to Hack Sh** Together

14 points by jprocopio 8y ago

LandR 8y ago
Most professional developers don't really learn to code, they actually just learn to hack shit together.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago
  Shush don't let the civilians know that :-)
- jprocopio 8y ago
  Ha! Love it. There are degrees of course. I used to be a coder, now I'm a professional Hack Shit Togetherer.
- _Schizotypy 8y ago
  I've actually learned a lot about coding from my years of hacking shit together. It really is a good learning experience
- kuroguro 8y ago
  +1, that's what I tell people if they ask what I do :D
flatfilefan 8y ago
The author goes quickly to the wishful thinking territory. Save time, hack software systems together but don’t spend any time learning to code at all. How to properly work with aws sql api as he proposes when you have no idea about coding? And as soon as you have at least some coding skills who can say you didn’t learn to code?
Kagerjay 8y ago
Getting access to developers is not hard. It's not even that expensive to build an MVP in most cases, you can find great quality outside the states. Just go on upwork (or similar). If you don't have the skills qualified hire someone to do it. If you want to build something quick with no knowledge - learn to market, hire, vet, document, and delegate tasks effectively. The fastest way to learn this is through case studies on upwork IMO in tandem with a course on outsourcing. Search open jobs, filter by amount paid + number of reviews, you can see what someone who has spent $100k+ on the site vs someone who's spent $0. This information is all public. You can come across some really interesting case studies/data, e.g. how Disney analyzes ride wait times with actual data, or how mechanical turk is used for UX feedback. You can leverage conversations between different developers to learn insights about things you need to do. It's similar to this - you have a terminal illness, you'll want to go to several doctors before choosing one. You weigh options effectively this way. In parallel you can always learn to program, so you can communicate and vet better. And hack shit together on your own. But really you should treat them as two seperate entities. A top down approach (delegating, hiring for real world work) and a bottoms up approach (learning to do things via toy projects). You can take the halfway approach and use prebuilt tools as well (zapier, wordpress, etc), it just depends what the project scope is. Pick 2 of 3, do it fast - do it well - do it cheap
diegoperini 8y ago
Am I the only one who opposes this? Of course "learn to code" and don't brag about it once you can. Mathematicians don't brag when they do arithmetics, and they never, ever advise each other that arithmetics is useless. Lawyers don't brag when they read and write long text documents, and it is a useless idea to dismiss the importance of such patience. There is no a few hours quicker way to do a heart surgery for a surgeon even if she is so used to doing it. Please, for the love of your craft, accept that it is OK for some things to stay difficult. In the context of this article, if you are not gonna learn how to code, then make someone who can a stakeholder of the project. Or maybe consult to a professional! In my experience, someone who can't do a "Hello HTTP" in at least one language will simply get lost in the huge dashboard of AWS or any other similar cloud service. Even when your solution doesn't involve novel technology, sticking existing components to each other will require coding skills. You don't want to paralyse your dev schedule due to a never ending SQL query which is quite likely to happen to a newbie "hacker". "Undefined is not a function" can mean 48294839 different things, which will scare you to death if you don't know what you are doing.
- jprocopio 8y ago
  Totally get your point. To be clear, I'm not against learn to code. If your goal is to become a tech entrepreneur, then yes, learn to code. If not, and if you're coming from zero, chase your idea down with HST to prove it's viable before spending all that learning curve time coding it.
  - azdacha 8y ago
    Then it's all throw away because noting makes sense, nobody understood what he has been doing, and a proper company that would have to host, manage and maintain the said software would simply ask to re-build the said soft from scratch because it would be cheaper. These people would have better time building up sweet and clean prototypes ; at least they would have a professional competency at the end. Because yes, hacking shit together is not a job. Those little hackers that existed 10 years ago all went on to college to learn architecture and what not and are now recruited either for data job, management, or devops / security. I get the point, I passed trough this "phase" ; but let me be clear : everybody told me it was pure bullshit and shitty software. Iterate on architecture rather than feature. At some point you gotta be lucid about what you are doing, and hacking sh*t together doesn't help you master the service you are going to expose. ps : Hacking stuff together is still a lot of fun for newbs or "fun" prototype ; nothing professional or client worthy can get out of this kind of mess.

14 points by jprocopio 8y ago

LandR 8y ago

Most professional developers don't really learn to code, they actually just learn to hack shit together.

C1sc0cat 8y ago
Shush don't let the civilians know that :-)
jprocopio 8y ago
Ha! Love it. There are degrees of course. I used to be a coder, now I'm a professional Hack Shit Togetherer.
_Schizotypy 8y ago
I've actually learned a lot about coding from my years of hacking shit together. It really is a good learning experience
kuroguro 8y ago
+1, that's what I tell people if they ask what I do :D

flatfilefan 8y ago

The author goes quickly to the wishful thinking territory. Save time, hack software systems together but don’t spend any time learning to code at all. How to properly work with aws sql api as he proposes when you have no idea about coding? And as soon as you have at least some coding skills who can say you didn’t learn to code?

Kagerjay 8y ago

Getting access to developers is not hard. It's not even that expensive to build an MVP in most cases, you can find great quality outside the states. Just go on upwork (or similar). If you don't have the skills qualified hire someone to do it. If you want to build something quick with no knowledge - learn to market, hire, vet, document, and delegate tasks effectively. The fastest way to learn this is through case studies on upwork IMO in tandem with a course on outsourcing. Search open jobs, filter by amount paid + number of reviews, you can see what someone who has spent $100k+ on the site vs someone who's spent $0. This information is all public. You can come across some really interesting case studies/data, e.g. how Disney analyzes ride wait times with actual data, or how mechanical turk is used for UX feedback. You can leverage conversations between different developers to learn insights about things you need to do. It's similar to this - you have a terminal illness, you'll want to go to several doctors before choosing one. You weigh options effectively this way. In parallel you can always learn to program, so you can communicate and vet better. And hack shit together on your own. But really you should treat them as two seperate entities. A top down approach (delegating, hiring for real world work) and a bottoms up approach (learning to do things via toy projects). You can take the halfway approach and use prebuilt tools as well (zapier, wordpress, etc), it just depends what the project scope is. Pick 2 of 3, do it fast - do it well - do it cheap

diegoperini 8y ago

Am I the only one who opposes this? Of course "learn to code" and don't brag about it once you can. Mathematicians don't brag when they do arithmetics, and they never, ever advise each other that arithmetics is useless. Lawyers don't brag when they read and write long text documents, and it is a useless idea to dismiss the importance of such patience. There is no a few hours quicker way to do a heart surgery for a surgeon even if she is so used to doing it. Please, for the love of your craft, accept that it is OK for some things to stay difficult. In the context of this article, if you are not gonna learn how to code, then make someone who can a stakeholder of the project. Or maybe consult to a professional! In my experience, someone who can't do a "Hello HTTP" in at least one language will simply get lost in the huge dashboard of AWS or any other similar cloud service. Even when your solution doesn't involve novel technology, sticking existing components to each other will require coding skills. You don't want to paralyse your dev schedule due to a never ending SQL query which is quite likely to happen to a newbie "hacker". "Undefined is not a function" can mean 48294839 different things, which will scare you to death if you don't know what you are doing.

jprocopio 8y ago
Totally get your point. To be clear, I'm not against learn to code. If your goal is to become a tech entrepreneur, then yes, learn to code. If not, and if you're coming from zero, chase your idea down with HST to prove it's viable before spending all that learning curve time coding it.
- azdacha 8y ago
  Then it's all throw away because noting makes sense, nobody understood what he has been doing, and a proper company that would have to host, manage and maintain the said software would simply ask to re-build the said soft from scratch because it would be cheaper. These people would have better time building up sweet and clean prototypes ; at least they would have a professional competency at the end. Because yes, hacking shit together is not a job. Those little hackers that existed 10 years ago all went on to college to learn architecture and what not and are now recruited either for data job, management, or devops / security. I get the point, I passed trough this "phase" ; but let me be clear : everybody told me it was pure bullshit and shitty software. Iterate on architecture rather than feature. At some point you gotta be lucid about what you are doing, and hacking sh*t together doesn't help you master the service you are going to expose. ps : Hacking stuff together is still a lot of fun for newbs or "fun" prototype ; nothing professional or client worthy can get out of this kind of mess.