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This is potentially terrible advice. Temperamentally, many people are poorly suited for programming. The OP might be a great designer, writer and bootstrap ma

This is potentially terrible advice. Temperamentally, many people are poorly suited for programming. The OP might be a great designer, writer and bootstrap marketeer who could benefit from a partnership. I'd advocate for assessing your skills and honestly figuring out if you have anything to offer to a founding team (a lot of skills really don't matter until you've actually built something of value). If not, sure-- learn to code. Learn to design. But if you do have valuable skills, find a partner who has complementary skills and get rolling. If you can't find a partner, it's likely that your idea isn't as good as you thought it was. ;-)

kyro 19y ago
Well, not too long ago I posted my dilemma about me being very business oriented and having design skill, and still not being able to find programmers as they were turned off. And the majority of the replies I received were ones telling me to learn how to program. Just because I'm learning to code doesn't mean, however, that I am tossing my other skills away. I find that I have a much much much better understanding of the mechanics behind apps and that at the very least, i'll be able to connect on a much deeper level with another programmer if I were to assemble a team and not take a significant programming position. You're right, perhaps he may turn out to be an awful coder, but at the very least, establishing a common thread of communication by which a programmer can relay his concerns to a designer or a marketer, and for them to understand, in my opinion, is pretty valuable.
- Shooter 19y ago
  I think kyro is 100% right on this point. I learned to program just for these exact reasons (better understanding of the problem domain for a business, better communication with technical staff, etc.) By all rights, I should be the absolute worst programmer in the world. But based on unofficial world rankings, it turns out that I'm only in the bottom five ;-) Programming skills (however limited) and business savvy are a very potent combination. I don't regret learning to code at all...
- Shorel 19y ago
  I think that you have to learn how to program because if you don't need the skills in your day to day work, at least you need the skills to judge correctly how much work a given task takes, and to understand the possible complications of the process.
pg 19y ago
Even if someone isn't cut out to be a great programmer, it will help a lot to have done some programming. Jobs wasn't a hacker on the scale of Wozniak, but it helped him a lot to have done some technical work. He was not just a suit.

kyro 19y ago

Well, not too long ago I posted my dilemma about me being very business oriented and having design skill, and still not being able to find programmers as they were turned off. And the majority of the replies I received were ones telling me to learn how to program. Just because I'm learning to code doesn't mean, however, that I am tossing my other skills away. I find that I have a much much much better understanding of the mechanics behind apps and that at the very least, i'll be able to connect on a much deeper level with another programmer if I were to assemble a team and not take a significant programming position. You're right, perhaps he may turn out to be an awful coder, but at the very least, establishing a common thread of communication by which a programmer can relay his concerns to a designer or a marketer, and for them to understand, in my opinion, is pretty valuable.

Shooter 19y ago
I think kyro is 100% right on this point. I learned to program just for these exact reasons (better understanding of the problem domain for a business, better communication with technical staff, etc.) By all rights, I should be the absolute worst programmer in the world. But based on unofficial world rankings, it turns out that I'm only in the bottom five ;-) Programming skills (however limited) and business savvy are a very potent combination. I don't regret learning to code at all...
Shorel 19y ago
I think that you have to learn how to program because if you don't need the skills in your day to day work, at least you need the skills to judge correctly how much work a given task takes, and to understand the possible complications of the process.

pg 19y ago

Even if someone isn't cut out to be a great programmer, it will help a lot to have done some programming. Jobs wasn't a hacker on the scale of Wozniak, but it helped him a lot to have done some technical work. He was not just a suit.