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This is smart advice, but by listing specifics I think a larger point is glazed over. For a business founder, struggling and hacking your way through a seemingl

This is smart advice, but by listing specifics I think a larger point is glazed over. For a business founder, struggling and hacking your way through a seemingly intractable technical issue is the critical formative experience. It's not about the tools - they're necessary to have the experience, but not sufficient. To me, it's about the intellectual approach of hacking. Marketing/product and technical development are both part-science and part-art, but technical development trains you to break down large problems into discretely approachable steps, while still keeping a wide view of the problem incase you find an improved fundamental approach. Once a business founder has hacked his way from an idea to a polished version of something, he can be much better at his job.

mikk0j 14y ago
I completely agree. Necessary, not sufficient. Covering the specifics, which are just the tools and a basic foundation, is empowering and motivating IMO. A big part of learning basics like this is just learning the vocabulary for describing the larger challenge you want to tackle. Knowing that you have the tools and the basics is necessary for learning more, and ultimately, getting to the point of building, polishing and delivering.
stcredzero 14y ago
It's not about the tools - they're necessary to have the experience, but not sufficient. To me, it's about the intellectual approach of hacking. I agree. I've been in the software industry for over two decades and I can tell you that untold damage has been done by marketers who have a half-baked idea of the technical details. For better or worse, marketers produce and control much of the language used to describe products. Doing this badly sows mistrust and sullies technical terms, making it harder for the technical side to communicate. it's about the intellectual approach of hacking. This bears emphasizing. When anyone is dealing with a concept outside of their core discipline, they need to QA their conceptualization. Any analogies you discover will be flawed at some level. You are probably not going to get it right on the first iteration. Getting it right probably means some genuine learning on your part.

mikk0j 14y ago

I completely agree. Necessary, not sufficient. Covering the specifics, which are just the tools and a basic foundation, is empowering and motivating IMO. A big part of learning basics like this is just learning the vocabulary for describing the larger challenge you want to tackle. Knowing that you have the tools and the basics is necessary for learning more, and ultimately, getting to the point of building, polishing and delivering.

stcredzero 14y ago

It's not about the tools - they're necessary to have the experience, but not sufficient. To me, it's about the intellectual approach of hacking. I agree. I've been in the software industry for over two decades and I can tell you that untold damage has been done by marketers who have a half-baked idea of the technical details. For better or worse, marketers produce and control much of the language used to describe products. Doing this badly sows mistrust and sullies technical terms, making it harder for the technical side to communicate. it's about the intellectual approach of hacking. This bears emphasizing. When anyone is dealing with a concept outside of their core discipline, they need to QA their conceptualization. Any analogies you discover will be flawed at some level. You are probably not going to get it right on the first iteration. Getting it right probably means some genuine learning on your part.