Y Combinator and The Five (or Six)-Tool Developer | Hacker News Reader

Y Combinator and The Five (or Six)-Tool Developer

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34 pointsrobjama11 comments

I am not sure if I could support/let go my team member like you. Very classy on your part. And Good luck to Dessy on her interview.

@kyenneti: Thank you. It wasn't an easy process, but we stand by our principles on this one.

This is the first time I've heard of programmers being assessed this way (usually on HN is more about hard core CS concepts and expertise with certain technologies).

I think its a lot more utilitarian and thought provoking but am interested in hearing what other HN'ers have to say about it.

It's bullshit?

Shipping is number 1 for a start.

And anyone who says 'Architecture' in the same article as developer, well, lets just say the two are kinda mutually exclusive. One's a person who codes, the other's a person who talks about code but can't do it.

Also, go to their website homepage. Look at the splash screen crying 'we just starting doing mobile!'. Sooooooooo..... They only just got their own perfect coders or something?

Realize this article is a total waste of our time.

A lot of hate there Matt. I suspect your definition of software architect is different than theirs.

Hey Matt, Just like the baseball comparison in our post, our list isn't in a particular order of importance. I completely agree, shipping is vital. Regarding your point about Architecture: like I mentioned to @trustfundbaby, because our team is small and we build multiple apps at once, it's important that our developers have strong architecture and planning skills. Regarding our work in mobile: we've been building mobile apps for 2 years, however we've only recently offered it as a service to our clients. Thanks.

I've debated posting this, but here I go:

If you're currently looking for another person, I think that I've got a fairly good claim to being a solid 4-tool of 6, and I've done some stuff with a fifth. I'm also looking for a job since the last one imploded last week. If nothing else, we could have an interesting conversation over your preferred beverage at a coffee shop.

Saying a UI Architect is just a person who "can't" code is like saying an architect (for physical buildings) is a person who can't build in comparison to the construction worker. UI Architecture and development require different but equally vital skills, which BTW aren't necessarily mutually exclusive; some people are able to do both.

Congrats & goodluck to Dessy on landing the YC interview!

Architecture isn't mutually exclusive with development. I've been in the business for 15 years and while you can sometimes ship version one without doing any architectural analysis and planning, you sure as hell can't do version two without it. The architecture of your solution matters, and if a developer doesn't get it (or plan it appropriately themselves), then your project won't ship.

I've shipped lots of software in my career, and I've always had to think about how and where the adata is flowing in my solutions. That data flow? It's software architecture. If you don't think about your software's architecture, you'll still end up with one—but it may not be to your liking.

@trustfundbaby, thanks for the comment. We are a client services firm as well as product development studio, so we look for developers that have a diversity of skill sets. We have some people that provide more engineering strength, and others that provide more UX or even client facing skill sets. Because we are a boutique shop of 15 handling multiple projects at once it's important for our team to run the gamut of dev skills; perhaps more than in other dev environments. I don't know how important that is to other shops?

Looks like a happy family.

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