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The real tragedy is, learning business is not hard. Any programmer can do it. As a person who's switched back and forth between the technical person, the manag

by crusso 12y ago

The real tragedy is, learning business is not hard. Any programmer can do it. As a person who's switched back and forth between the technical person, the manager, and the business developer - I can tell you that all of the roles in the company take skill to do properly.

rday 12y ago
I agree. All the roles are hard to master. Why have I, in the past 5 years, learned a tremendous amount about markets, equity, accounting, law, pricing, and I don't even know what else. But the business masters (all of them) I've been working with still can't update a webpage? Just one person's experience, I know. But it's still funny to me.
- crusso 12y ago
  I'm with you both in the fact that I started from engineering and learned about many other disciplines as I went along. Also, I'd agree that most other disciplines don't bother to learn engineering/programming. When you're an engineer, the ugly truth is that to increase your salary and opportunities, you normally need to branch out and learn other things like management and sales. When you're a good salesperson, you can reach great heights financially without worrying about how to update a web page.
meowface 12y ago
You're right, but it's no doubt much easier for an engineer to learn business and sales than for a business person to become good at programming and write production code daily.
- crusso 12y ago
  Learning a little programming isn't any harder than learning something about management or sales - it's just that most people don't bother to do it. My mom was 60 when she started learning HTML and javascript. She does just fine updating web pages, forms, etc. for her quilting and singing groups. I have a lot of respect for good engineers, good managers, and good salespeople. Saying that one discipline is harder than the other is like saying that being a good violin player is any harder than being a good piano player.
- voidhorse 12y ago
  Hm. I would say it's easy for either role to learn at the entry level. I am entirely confident that an engineer who had the desire to learn some business could pick up the basics fairly easily, just as I am confident a business/sales person who had the desire to learn programming could pick it up fairly easily. But, it is no doubt just as difficult for the engineer to learn how to manage enterprise sized operations as it would be for the Sales guy to learn how to architect a complete system. In both cases a great deal of persistence and time is required--things often seem easy to us when we haven't really delved into them. As you really immerse yourself in a given field you begin to realize how much you don't know and the massive amount of things you can still learn.
bduerst 12y ago
I think it's also the dunning kruger effect - the "I am a person working in a business, thus I'm an expert, qualified to judge business people". This also applies to a lot of other disciplines and professions, really.

by crusso 12y ago

rday 12y ago

I agree. All the roles are hard to master. Why have I, in the past 5 years, learned a tremendous amount about markets, equity, accounting, law, pricing, and I don't even know what else. But the business masters (all of them) I've been working with still can't update a webpage? Just one person's experience, I know. But it's still funny to me.

crusso 12y ago
I'm with you both in the fact that I started from engineering and learned about many other disciplines as I went along. Also, I'd agree that most other disciplines don't bother to learn engineering/programming. When you're an engineer, the ugly truth is that to increase your salary and opportunities, you normally need to branch out and learn other things like management and sales. When you're a good salesperson, you can reach great heights financially without worrying about how to update a web page.

meowface 12y ago

You're right, but it's no doubt much easier for an engineer to learn business and sales than for a business person to become good at programming and write production code daily.

crusso 12y ago
Learning a little programming isn't any harder than learning something about management or sales - it's just that most people don't bother to do it. My mom was 60 when she started learning HTML and javascript. She does just fine updating web pages, forms, etc. for her quilting and singing groups. I have a lot of respect for good engineers, good managers, and good salespeople. Saying that one discipline is harder than the other is like saying that being a good violin player is any harder than being a good piano player.
voidhorse 12y ago
Hm. I would say it's easy for either role to learn at the entry level. I am entirely confident that an engineer who had the desire to learn some business could pick up the basics fairly easily, just as I am confident a business/sales person who had the desire to learn programming could pick it up fairly easily. But, it is no doubt just as difficult for the engineer to learn how to manage enterprise sized operations as it would be for the Sales guy to learn how to architect a complete system. In both cases a great deal of persistence and time is required--things often seem easy to us when we haven't really delved into them. As you really immerse yourself in a given field you begin to realize how much you don't know and the massive amount of things you can still learn.

bduerst 12y ago

I think it's also the dunning kruger effect - the "I am a person working in a business, thus I'm an expert, qualified to judge business people". This also applies to a lot of other disciplines and professions, really.