17 ms·
Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup
- robobenjie 16y ago"Don’t pretend to be more technical than you are. Especially in the Bay Area. First of all, it’s incredibly transparent (even to non-technical people), and you will lose all credibility. It also pisses off engineers. " <venting> Seriously. Please don't condescendingly explain something technical, incorrectly, to someone who already understands it. AHHHHRGG! </venting>
- weilawei 16y agoHear, hear! I really dread sitting through this, because it makes me cringe and squirm and want to correct them. On the other hand, it teaches patience. Patience is worth a lot. When I first began tutoring comp sci students, I learned that, even among the technically inclined, you will need to sit through an enormous amount of misunderstandings and mind-numbing attempts to keep the ol' neurons firing just so. Think you have patience? Try teaching. I picked up tutoring on the side to earn some extra money. As a side-effect, I feel like it's helping my skills in dealing with clients, programming, and teaching. EDIT: Also, I love pair programming. Don't know about other people, but I feel as though I'm easily twice as productive on my normal days, even though I might be on an absolute roll by myself a couple times a week. It also seems to be easier to avoid design pitfalls or unnecessary debugging with an extra set of eyes on the code (as it's written).
- vibhavs 16y agoRelated: What's A Non-Programmer To Do? by Spencer Fry http://spencerfry.com/whats-a-non-programmer-to-do http://spencerfry.com/whats-a-non-programmer-to-do
- strlen 16y agoThere's a corollary to the 90/10 rule: if solving a whole problem seems infeasible, try solving 80% of it instead.
- potatolicious 16y agoThe caution behind that corollary is: be aware of the difference between infeasible, impossible, and laziness. There's a whole big market out there for people who can execute the full 100% while everyone else stops after the easy 90. Case in point: Apple.
- ams6110 16y ago7) Don't call people engineers when the appropriate term is "developer" or "programmer"
- veemjeem 16y agoPersonally I think engineer is a better term than "programmer".
- jfb 16y agoI disagree. I don't find many similarities between what I do and what a "real engineer" does. I do not consider myself an engineer; I write software. Nowhere in the 18 years I've been doing this for money have I met anybody that could explain what software engineering really is. Without a definition, the term to me is meaningless.
- tjpick 16y agothe application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software. That's what they'll teach you at engineering school. Not everyone who is writing software is engineering.
- alextgordon 16y agoEngineers precisely specify a problem and then build a solution that's correct to within a tolerance. I'm afraid I don't see the resemblance to programming.
- troystribling 16y agoA very precise definition of an engineer? Engineers build tools. Artists build amusements. Scientists build ideas. Programmer = Engineer.
- njharman 16y ago
- rokhayakebe 16y ago1 thing a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup. Learn How to Code. Simple as that.
- brianchesky 16y ago"Non-engineers are not 'designers' by default." Amen to that. This would be a great subject for its own post.
- techiferous 16y agoAnd conversely, don't automatically assume engineers can't design!
- aberman 16y agosee edit on my original post.
- donaq 16y agoWhen I read #2 I went "THANK YOU".
- weilawei 16y ago"From what I can tell, nothing is more frustrating to an engineer than a non-engineer asking for something complex, and treating it like it’s trivial." Yes, yes, and more yes. When programmers say "possible," they mean before the heat death of the universe. That doesn't mean all possible things are automatically trivial, despite their apparent obviousness.
- nl 16y agoWhen programmers say "possible," they mean before the heat death of the universe. I said possible, but I never agreed to that schedule!
- cracki 16y ago...let there be light?
- ApolloRising 16y agoprops for ds9 reference
- scottporad 16y agoRight...everywhere is walking distance if you have enough time.
- stevenbrianhall 16y agoAlong with "don't pretend to be more technical than you are", I would add "Trust the engineer/dev/ux guy/programmer to do what you hired them to do". I had the experience (that I imagine a lot of people share) of being hired by a non-technical founder in a start-up, who then wanted to micro-manage and give input on every minute decision that went into the building of the UI, even to the detrement of the user experience.
- aberman 16y agoThat should actually be #7, I think - I'll add it if I get the chance. I started off like the person you describe, and I have since moved pretty far in the opposite direction.
- stevenbrianhall 16y agoI've not yet been in the management position, but I definitely don't think it's an easy thing to do. It requires the loss of some control, and putting your neck out on the line, but when you've hired the person equipped for the job, it's ultimately best.
- j_baker 16y agoTo be honest, I've met programmers who don't understand these issues as well as the author does. It's refreshing to see a non-techie who goes out of their way to understand these things.
- mscarborough 16y agoI did not see it in the post: who wrote this? It's in the first person, but I don't see any attribution.
- ulugbek 16y agoVery timely and useful post, thanks.