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Quibble: tech != SW. Outside of programming there's a ton of technical work where it's helpful but not necessary to know how to program. Beyond that this is a

Quibble: tech != SW. Outside of programming there's a ton of technical work where it's helpful but not necessary to know how to program. Beyond that this is a very good read.

excalibur 5y ago
Coding is a specialty, not the end all be all of tech knowledge. You don't want developers configuring your switches and firewalls. If I had a dollar for every time I had to help a developer setup VPNs and database connections...
- User23 5y ago
  It really depends. There certainly are developer roles where actually understanding networking is vital. Of course they are a tiny minority, but it’s where you find some of the most interesting people.
analog31 5y ago
Indeed, some tech is based on things like physics, math, chemistry, manufacturing, and so forth. We've figured out how to have people managing a tech business, who couldn't grasp all of the disciplines that go into the tech. The danger with any technology is that it will start extracting rent from your business if you don't understand it. At the very least, I'd advise any manager to read The Mythical Man Month, which I think is still fresh after nearly half a century.
anyfactor 5y ago
The problem is for me atleast, the people I want to colloborate who are technically competent in non-programming fields don't see programming as crucial as we see it to be. In many situation there is nothing I could offer in terms of efficiency or profitability that they can't get done with exisiting software solutions, contractors/freelancers etc. In most case what programming has to offer for successful small to medium businesses is just novelty, I often think and having someone constantly trying to integrate programming solutions has little marginal value. When it comes to selling, programming often isn't first thing to address for technically successful people who aren't already fascinated with startup, hacking, sideproject etc. If you have a counter point I would love to hear that.

Quibble: tech != SW. Outside of programming there's a ton of technical work where it's helpful but not necessary to know how to program. Beyond that this is a very good read.

excalibur 5y ago

Coding is a specialty, not the end all be all of tech knowledge. You don't want developers configuring your switches and firewalls. If I had a dollar for every time I had to help a developer setup VPNs and database connections...

User23 5y ago
It really depends. There certainly are developer roles where actually understanding networking is vital. Of course they are a tiny minority, but it’s where you find some of the most interesting people.

analog31 5y ago

Indeed, some tech is based on things like physics, math, chemistry, manufacturing, and so forth. We've figured out how to have people managing a tech business, who couldn't grasp all of the disciplines that go into the tech. The danger with any technology is that it will start extracting rent from your business if you don't understand it. At the very least, I'd advise any manager to read The Mythical Man Month, which I think is still fresh after nearly half a century.

anyfactor 5y ago

The problem is for me atleast, the people I want to colloborate who are technically competent in non-programming fields don't see programming as crucial as we see it to be. In many situation there is nothing I could offer in terms of efficiency or profitability that they can't get done with exisiting software solutions, contractors/freelancers etc. In most case what programming has to offer for successful small to medium businesses is just novelty, I often think and having someone constantly trying to integrate programming solutions has little marginal value. When it comes to selling, programming often isn't first thing to address for technically successful people who aren't already fascinated with startup, hacking, sideproject etc. If you have a counter point I would love to hear that.