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Comment by terrencelui | Hacker News Reader

As author of the Original Post I think you need a balance team where everybody brings something unique and important to the table. It's not enough to just come up with the "idea". You have to know how that idea will morph into other things. You have to know how you can extend that idea. You have to know how competition will force you to iterate. Etc.

I don't agree that you should become your own smart nerd. I shudder at anyone with no technical background picking up a programming book at just trying to learn to code. I'm not saying it isn't valuable to learn new things, but it would be a better use of time honing the things that make you unique and finding a person with the talents you lack to compliment yourself.

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The point is to not become as good as a smart nerd, because you'll be playing catch up your whole life. The point is that you need to show that you know enough about your idea on the technical side that you can communicate effectively with your partner. Knowing some basic principles of coding goes a long way in that regard, and it also shows that you are willing to become interested in things outside your level of expertise -- even if you aren't willing to become a master at them.

I've sat down with many people who needed a technical person to implement their idea. But as they were talking it should have became immediately clear to anyone with technical knowledge why their idea was flawed in fundamental ways. But these people never delved into that side, so they figured programmers could somehow perform miracles and make it work, and had unrealistic ideas of deadlines, money that would be needed, etc. As a programmer, you don't want to have to deal with correcting many false assumptions someone is making and any others they will make as you build the product, when there are plenty of "technical enough" entrepreneurs who know whats possible and whats not.

I think we are in agreement here. My greatest strength as the "idea" guy comes from the fact that I was a developer at one point. I am technical enough to ground my ideas in reality.

The advice I did give to one person who asked me was to go get a job at a tech company. You don't have to code, but you have to know how technical products come together so that you can have an intelligent conversation with your future technical cofounder.

A lot of people are like Jimmy the bully in Big Bang Theory:

'When asked how that would work he replies, "How the hell should I know. That's why I need a nerd."'

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