Ask HN: How many non-developers (business) ppl teaching themselves how to code? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How many non-developers (business) ppl teaching themselves how to code?

8 pointsjayliew11 comments

How many non-developers are tired of not being able to find a technical co-founder and are determined to stitch something together with their own hands?

As a follow up to the real reason why I'm asking: I'm a developer bootstrapping a startup out of Hacker Dojo, and I was thinking of teaching a free class, which would basically be a "programming 101" for non-developers. Hacker Dojo has many free classes for all sorts of people, e.g. "design 101" for developers (who are usually not savvy about good design).

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As an accountant who eventually became a developer, the hard part isn't learning to code, it's all the related lore that causes problems. Version control, shells and pipes, "scripting languages", (free) Unix, editors instead of push button ide's, etc. If someone has had experience with a rigorous field, writing code won't be hard to grasp, butthey won't even know the questions to ask about the ancillary tools that are needed to be successful. Have a 10 things to revisit as you learn about programming page, or something.

Most people could figure out that, say, a miner would need to know about digging and shoring up dirt. That they might need to know about pumping water isn't obvious until you've done it a few times.

I am a non-dev teaching myself to program and something like what you describe would be great. Something for people who want to learn about the tech side but aren't going hardcore with the self-teaching would probably be good as well--meaning a class that teaches you enough to understand what exactly your tech co-founder does, will do, can do.

Over the past year I've been slowly teaching myself python (mostly for stuff related to my current job) and django (partly just for fun, partly in preparation for the day when I'm not at said job, I suppose). Since I don't have a strong, immediate and personal reason to hit it hard, I haven't been, but I do try to write a little bit of code every day and learn something meatier on a weekly basis.

While I'm sure that a beginner class would still have plenty of value for me, I find that most beginner resources spend a lot of time on stuff that I'm already comfortable with, and it's a pain to dig through to the part where they start covering the topics I'm trying to learn atm. I don't suppose this is a helpful suggestion for your current idea, but what would be most valuable to me is some kind of mentor who could help me figure out what topics/ideas/practices to learn next, where to find the right intermediate-level resources, etc.

Yes, this is a great idea. But it should be an online course. I quit my banking job of 5 years and have spent the past 9 months taking courses in discrete math, algorithms and data structures, and computer organization. I have also been teaching myself python/django and have built a prototype with real alpha testers and a list of over 150 people interested in paying for my product when it's completed. I have a good grasp on programming and CS fundamentals, but could really use a course that teaches the basics of software engineering principles, scaling issues, payments processing, and version control with git. Basically a crash course in everything a junior software developer will encounter when climbing the learning curve at his first job at a startup.

Marketing guy here with good skills in design.

Got tired of looking for developers to help me with my ideas so I started teaching myself Python. I already know a lot of stuff about php/html/css/etc. Even though I had already a quite good understanding of the developers job it opened up my mind even more.

All in all, it's a great experience and I can now hack something together to have a "working prototype" of my ideas :)

Tl;dr Python FTW

Great idea - I'd be interested. Also, to consider, (maybe echoing some of the themes from other comments): setting up core deployment environment that 'works'. Often tiptoeing in, I get tripped up on some detail of config that is obvious to the experienced. Also best way to connect for mentor help on-demand for problems or design best practices.

I am teaching myself python/django. Started around January this year, released www.sgelections2011.com about 2 weeks ago. Bring it on :)

P.S I'm actually looking for a Django Jedi Master to take my under his wing for a bit. Think I got the basics down but lack a experienced eye to see that obvious mistakes I'm making. Thanks!

I'm currently trying to combine learning to code with travelling the world. I don't like making it easy for myself...

Non-dev here going through the ropes with PHP and Javascript

Me. RoR.

My partner re-taught himself to code for a hobby site called moodalytics.com. (He used to develop back in the 90s but moved into management and user experience, so he didn't keep those dev skills sharp.)

He taught himself to code not because he wants to be a developer. (He knows how much work and talent that requires!) Rather, he built that site purely as a way to attract developers to help him on a larger-scale product he's now working on; he wanted to prove to developers that he wasn't going to sit idly by making 'business decisions' while the developer slaved away at all the seriously critical stuff.

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