Developer Partner Needed | Hacker News Reader

Developer Partner Needed

forum.developers.facebook.com

4 pointsfrisco12 comments

Public service announcement to anyone who ever finds themselves writing like this: You will notice how seldom developers go to forums and say "Dang it, I have a bank account with five to six figures to commit to a project and recent expert-level experience with designing complex $FOO systems but I really need an idea for my next application. If you can provide the idea, I'll do all the work and then we can split it 50-50."

Relatedly: You will also notice how seldom developers say "You know, while previously I've worked with very technical clients who write detailed specifications, generally costing tens of thousands of dollars and several man months to draft, just this once I want to try interpreting three sentences jotted onto a napkin with a ketchup stain on it. It should be fun!

P.S. Please make sure your napkin includes at least two technologies you will require me to use, so I know you're not one of those silly clients who would leave critical details like what database to use for a high-availability system to the guy with experience in writing high availability systems. Honestly, those kinds of clients are the worst -- no wonder they have to pay me to work for them."

I actually think the PHP/MySQL thing isn't the craziest thing in the world to ask for; if he's smart, he probably doesn't care at all about PHP so much as he cares about the kind of developer he's going to get with that request.

This is why I always make a point to ask my attorneys about their experience in seeking preliminary injunctions. Not because they'll necessarily need to on my behalf, mind you -- just so that I know they're not those riffraff legal experts who wouldn't know how to do it if they needed to.

Because, while I'm not a legal expert, I have watched a Law and Order episode or two, and I like using words that I recognize to let them know that they can't just B.S. me with their domain expertise, education, and years of professional experience.

You're missing my point, very defensive developer. I'm not saying he's trying to find good developers. I'm saying PHP/MySQL might be a good set of magic words to find cheap developers. Actually, "might" is the wrong word there.

That happened to me. At my current job the lead engineer and I have shared a lot of past experience (me:failed entrepreneur, him:talented but bored engineer). After a few months of lunching together he told me we could work together. We will both bring several problems to the table and pick which one to solve. He is the architect. I am the salesman/marketer. Nevertheless I also decided to learn how to code, myself.

The key there is the shared past. You both had a lot of time to sniff each other out.

Folks, the really great thing is that "Bugsy" is going to get even more than he bargained for.

For every sucker who (mistakenly) thinks he can get free labor out of hobbyists, there are a hundred hobbyists who (mistakenly) think their labor has a positive value.

(The not- and less-mistaken PHP hobbyists are all cranking away on open source projects.)

Its called "Adverse Selection" - part of the Principle Agent Problem!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_selection

Bugsy, is your killer idea pink & yellow polka dot tamagotchis?

Yeah, all he needs to do is sell just one to each person in China!

By the way, "All will be revealed upon enquiry!"... someone should "enquire" to find out what it is...

I've seriously had these 50/50 suggestions coming to me by e-mail, and about Facebook applications no less.

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