Hacker News Reader

Comment by wccrawford | Hacker News Reader

Haha, I thought you meant he just paid someone else to do it... No, so much worse. He didn't even -try-.

His app could have had a working version on the store in 2 weeks, if he'd really tried. It would benefit from further work, but would have proved his point.

Instead, he got dazzled by how much work the -best- apps take and gave up. It's like looking at a guitar and realizing how much work it takes to become a rockstar, and just giving up before you've even picked the thing up.

Most people aren't rockstars, and most apps don't hit #1 on -any- list.

View on HN

This IS how most non-developers "try" :)

I had an associate who would usually work with me to bring his web-based ideas to life. He decided to see if he could create one of his web-app ideas himself, and after realizing that it meant spending HOURS in front of the screen, piecing together a complicated puzzle of code while switching gears here and there to be a creative designer as well, it became evident that it wasn't a walk in the park.

"Trying" for some people will consist of searching Google for a magic spell that makes your ideas come to life.

Developcus Appeomus!

I think that's actually a really crucial point— not only do non-technical people not know how to code, but they don't know that they don't know how. People who have no idea how we do what we do assume that it's easy.

Edit: I actually think it's a little sad when you think about it. You know those steps for after "Google it" comes up blank, the ones like "Check if there are two things I can combine to do this" or "Look at the file format, maybe it's just tab-separated or something"? Those steps don't exist for most people.

This must be how mechanics feel about cars, huh.

"The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to recognize their mistakes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Hah, wow... I read both of your comments first and still didn't know what to expect in the article.

Yes, she literally just Googled "how do you make an app?", saw that it was hard, and is now reporting this to us.

No, a non-programmer cannot create an iPhone app in 2 weeks, even a really bad one. You've been programming too long.

I interpreted 'If [reporter] really tried' in the grandparent post to mean, "if reporter earnestly sought out and hired an expert".

Of course, the know-how for doing that takes time to develop as well.

But, if this reporter's real goal was getting an app done, rather than writing a story, she probably would have spoken to more people who had actually hired devs for short projects. Instead, she seems to have spoken to just enough people to get usable quotes for the story.

She never switches from the layperson's "invent" terminology (a misnomer for the ideas-into-functions process of software development) and is only ever hand-wavy about going rates for expert help. There is someone out there who has the expertise to make a simple version 1 of her app in 2 weeks or less; how much does that person charge?

I noticed the use of the word "invent" as well. It kind of hurt to read the first time. I thought after her first Google search she might realize that there was a better word for it, and start searching for how to "create" or "write" or "code" an iPhone application.

I wonder if this is how rock stars talk when they get together.

True, it is a lot harder than it looks. Once you know how to do something it seems easy.

lol You are correct, if you meant he would program it himself. I meant that he'd pay someone to write it for him. Since that was obviously his idea all along anyhow.

And you think a firm/dev worth their salt would take up his project at short notice, go from start to finish (including testing and debugging) in 2 weeks and it wouldn't cost an arm and a leg?

I would if I knew it was going to generate some press :)

It also doesn't cost "hundreds of thousands, if not millions" of dollars to get a contractor to develop a garage sale-finding app.

I mean, I could build a pretty amazing garage sale-finding app for that much, but I think Brandon Tennant either builds apps that are part of larger marketing campaigns (and only sees part of that budget), or is completely exaggerating in the hopes of landing a really big fish from that article. Or the author misunderstood him.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com