Why Programming Isn’t For Me | Hacker News Reader

Why Programming Isn’t For Me

blog.goodlook.me

64 pointschamza23 comments

Programming isn't even for programmers if they're running companies.

At some point you're gonna realize you're better off doing the stuff only you can do, and delegating the rest, including your beloved coding.

Update:

By the way, just looking at your site (http://goodlook.me/index.html) I could see at least 5 different job descriptions that might be needed to make this startup happen:

1) Backend developer, data wrangler, and statistician to do the ML stuff that classifies "styles" based on user "tastes" (this one is a toughie, assuming you're not cheating, even harder if you need to optimize both for user tastes and your own revenue; cube the pain if you want to add inventory to the mix!)

2) UI designer to make it good. Fashion is one place where you will need "taste". It's a trillion dollar industry that stands on one leg; hype.

3) Advertising sales manager to source new sponsors and vendors.

4) A communications manager to do media and PR, both old and new. Wearing multiple hats writing blogs, guest articles, scoring appearances and placements, dropping your media kit, etc.

5) Full time graphic editor and photoshop junkie. You can't just go from stock-photo CD to web. The vendors will give you their own images, which might not be good enough. The editor might wear several other hats as well, creating and editing banner ads, and maintaining the assets for your brand and image.

Then there is you, doing the budget and making sure each and everyone has enough to sustain a living. All while keeping an eye on the road ahead, doing quantitative measurement of where things are heading, how the business is changing, and constantly asking yourself whether you're dead yet or not. Making decisions that might force your entire team into violent rebellion and the undoing of months worth of work because circumstances have changed (or better yet, foreseeing this before it happens.)

Not to discourage you, just to give you a heads up that you will need to really polish your sales pitch and get all those people on board, for equity.

You can assemble this team either via contacts and recommendations, or tap into the hungry pool of recent grads and university students, but it will take some time to find the real gems, and you will need to completely understand your business inside out and bring out your own best, so others can see it.

I think this sort of experience will actually make you a great business oriented founder. Having tried it yourself, you understand the difficulties behind implementing ideas that are clear in your mind.

Also, since you've done some real work yourself, you should be able to sniff-out people who truly don't know what they're talking about.

Are there people who don't find programming strenuous? I certainly don't enjoy all aspects of programming.

Just wondering if this founder is giving up to easily. Of course just being the boss and telling other people what to do is more fun than doing actual work.

On the other hand, is "being a programmer" a bit like being a studio musician? I never understood why anybody would want to be a studio musician rather than writing their own songs, but I was told that some people prefer it that way. In the same vein, maybe "real programmers" just enjoy programming whatever they are being told to program? I don't want to diss "real programmers" - I just struggle to find my niche in the work force, and it appears being a real programmer is probably not it.

Are there people who don't find programming strenuous? I certainly don't enjoy all aspects of programming.

I love programming, but I still find it to be incredibly strenuous. I have to work at the more difficult/novel problems for days, grinding through particularly boring implementation details while maintaining a high level of attention so that I don't miss anything important.

It's tiring, difficult, often mind-bending, and ultimately, very rewarding. It sometimes seems to require the same amount of will-power I had to invest when working long hours doing difficult manual labor.

Just wondering if this founder is giving up to easily. Of course just being the boss and telling other people what to do is more fun than doing actual work.

Yes. And yes. When it came time to do the actual work, he gave up.

What's a "real" programmer? Your niche in the work force is going to be whatever you can make for yourself. If you want to lead projects (or a company), then find a way to do so. If you don't want to take investment, you'll have to invest your savings -- so find a high paying programming job to help you meet your goal.

Its unfortunate that the only thing that is considered "actual work" is programming. But I blame myself for not explaining more thoroughly in the article.

I invite you to look at the startup itself and the video demo. I know I'm asking a lot, but I think you should look more in to someones work before you say that they gave up without putting in any actual work. The video demonstrates a considerable part of the back-end being complete; I just need assistance because I understand that I cannot manage a project like this on my own.

He recognizes it seems naieve now, good for him. Now how many of the rest of us are still saying "When I get to that point, I'll become a great marketeer/fundraiser/communicator by reading a couple of blogs"?

The reverse is also true for people who are passionate about programming and want to turn that into a startup, assuming the marketing/business side of things is just a small part, a stepping stone to get to that goal.

Programming isn't for the author because they're obviously a business person first and foremost. Suits and programmers are two different worlds, right down to temperament and interests. You can tell just by looking at the language in the article - how they wanted to "execute" on their idea, and how they "just need to build the backend" which of course "wouldn't take much." To me it sounds exactly like those shady craigslist "entrepeneurs," where the pitch is that they've "done the hard part" and now all they need is "someone to do a bit of coding for us." They even go so far as stating that they dream of making sales calls and doing marketing.

quote: "But hacking, programming, whatever you want to call it—it’s not like that. Its something you have to invest real time in to, and you have to have a special drive to become good at it."

Gee, you think? Could that be why people go to college and get degrees in computer science?

Programming isn't for this person because they're just not a programmer, period.

I hate putting people in to boxes. Youre the "programmer guy", and I'm the "business guy". Thats the type of attitude that breeds "shady craigslist entrepreneurs that you speak of. People who believe they have no part in programming or designing, and are simply the "idea guys" and never dabble with code.

Was it wrong of me to attempt to learn something even though I was a "business guy" from the start? I tried programming, I wasn't successful at it, but I've gained a greater appreciation for it. I also attempted designing, and I loved it. I created a visually appealing website and actually learned a lot [by the way, people go to college for graphic design degrees too, doesn't mean I had a "special drive to become good at it"].

Theres nothing that will come out of dismissing someone as the "business-guy" or the "programmer", we all have the potential to do so many other things, and sometimes it works, but other times it doesnt. There's no harm in trying though.

Very well said

I wonder if this isn't a more common problem than some hackers realize. We don't all want to be CS and programming geniuses. We just want to know enough to get by and prove that our ideas can work.

A common sentiment among this group is that 'idea people' are worthless unless they can work hard at making that idea a reality. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to dedicate themselves to the technical end of that process.

Unfortunately, a large part of "idea" end of things is validating the concept technically and communicating it with sufficient fidelity to be implemented. That's much easier when you know what the construction entails, even if it isn't you that's doing the work.

Yes, I agree. It is like trying to write the Great American Novel, without knowing how to read or write English.

Now, you could get someone else to write it, and simply tell him the details and plot points you want, but without knowing how to read English, how would you know whether the story flowed right and was succinct?

That point is usually missing in the idea vs. tech posts here. The heart of it is that you really need both skills and can decide which is your focus and which is your compass.

I originally got into programming not for the exact same reasons, but for similar ones (reasons that were tangential to one of my primary interests). I guess I found that I loved it just as much and just never stopped, even though I never accomplished the original goal. These kinds of things can just as often lead to happy accidents, I guess.

Am I the only one who didn't like the usage of the words 'programmer' and 'hacker' as synonyms?

Apologies. That's something I overlooked and it definitely does go to show how much I have to learn.

No, you're not the only one. It does speak volumes about the programming skill of the author.

Or maybe the author has heard people like Thorvalds Linus and Eric Raymond refer to themselves as hackers.

What particular aspect of that bothers you?

I wonder if this wasn't the real problem:

"Now I just needed to build the backend, which wouldn’t take much because the idea I had was built off of existing technology"

This was the problem. A naive approach to the scope of the work that goes into this all.

tl;dr version: if you're passionate about something, it's much easier to invest the time necessary to become good at it. Conversely, when you're not passionate about something, you'll probably never be as good as others.

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