Comment by kendallpark | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kendallpark | Hacker News Reader

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I agree.

> From the founder’s perspective this is a very sweet deal. “All the hard work is done,” they proclaim, “All the tech person has to do is build it.” Ultimately, the sole founder becomes increasingly frustrated when every potential tech lead they speak with says “no thanks”.

I can't tell you how many times I've said "no thanks"--though it was probably more along the lines of "hell no!" I love it when a "business" person approaches me with their Great Idea™ and they're like, "I have the program all figured out, all I need is someone to code it." My response: "Then learn how to code."

Right now I'm working on a project with a non-programmer co-founder and the only reasons I agreed to it was 1) he's a longtime friend and I trust him, 2) he has expertise that I lack in the domain space (chemistry), 3) it was my idea in the first place and I have control over the development/vision. It still doesn't feel nice to have the weight of ALL THE PROGRAMMING on your shoulders.

Lately I've been getting lots of people who ARE learning how to code, and they come to me to describe their project and get advice. Their explanation always ends with "So it doesn't seem like that's very complicated, it's really simple software I need, right? Even though I'm just learning, I should be able to do it in a few weeks?"

I have begun to hear it, and try to explain it as:

"Okay, so I want to build a house, but it's just a SMALL house, we're talking just one room on the first floor and one on the second, and it only needs ONE toilet and ONE electrical outlet. And I've already spent a few weeks learning how to use a hammer and am pretty damn comfortable with hammers now -- and getting there with a drill too! So this should be pretty straightforward right? I just have one question that maybe you can help me with, something I've been confused about: Do electrical outlets and toilets use the same kind of tubing to connect them, or different kinds of tubing?"

I usually don't even know where to begin. I can give advice on how to learn how to write software, but they're gonna have to start from the basics, it's gonna take em a while (months at least, of constant work) until they get to the point where they know enough to build what they want, they may not get there at all if they find they don't actually enjoy programming or have no aptitude for it, and once they DO get there, THEN they can start actually building what they want to build -- which will take 3x as long as predicted even by someone who knows what they're talking about (which they don't yet), because that's how it is. They don't want to hear that and think I'm being 'elitist'.

I love the house metaphor. I'm going to use it. Thanks.

That metaphor just made me cry.

Your story reminds me as a freelancer telling the customer: you are "basically" asking me to hit your finger with a hammer.. that said, it is your finger an your hammer.. say the word and I'll hit !

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