I just need a programmer • Hacker News Board

Re: I just need a programmer

#51

Post by ssskai » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 5:56 PM UTC

Question: If I were a "BizDev" guy and wanted to create a website that has similar functionalities as, say, Groupon or PayPal (I understand they're different), what languages would be best to learn?

I would suspect some front-end GUI paired with a back-end database system would be needed, but what languages specifically would be best?

As an entrepreneur with a degree in Mech. Eng. and Entrp., and I have done programming in MATLAB, some VBA, and some HTML. So I understand the logic behind programs, but don't necessarily know all the languages.

Any and all suggestions are most welcomed!

Re: I just need a programmer

#52

Post by sudont » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 5:59 PM UTC

adacosta wrote: post #49

sudont wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily the base thinking skills transfer over, so learning how to program in Java/C means that the student now knows how to program irregardless of the language. Picking up a new language is less like learning a new dialect and more like learning the local slang and customs. Except for MUMPS. Fuck that shit.

regardless

Ssssh, you prescriptivist!

Re: I just need a programmer

#53

Post by eru » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:02 PM UTC

sudont wrote: post #25

nhangen wrote: post #9

I'm one of these guys. Why didn't I learn to program? I had maybe an hour/day in between my job and my side hustle, and I just didn't have enough time to get through the problems in order to be a good programmer. Since then, I've found that watching projects come to life, while learning on the side, has made it much easier to pick up Objective C, Javascript, Ruby, etc. Of course, I didn't expect programmers to work f…

Luckily the base thinking skills transfer over, so learning how to program in Java/C means that the student now knows how to program irregardless of the language. Picking up a new language is less like learning a new dialect and more like learning the local slang and customs. Except for MUMPS. Fuck that shit.

Picking up a new paradigm is also harder than picking up a different language within a paradigm you know. But you'll get pretty far with the imperative languages you mentioned.

Re: I just need a programmer

#54

Post by JoeAltmaier » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:07 PM UTC

angrycoder wrote: post #39

As someone who has spent most of his career at a consultancy, people like this put food on my table. The ones who end up being successful understand that they need to learn just as much about the process of software development and usability as we need to learn about their vertical. They understand that a good product is a result of give and take with your developers and analysts. The ones who fail are the type A alp…

I too have a consultancy, I too see bright young people at the door with the same issues.

I tell them "Think of the skinniest chicken you can possibly make, that will still get up and walk, and make that first". They won't, or at least they don't. They cannot imagine their baby without All the bells and whistles.

All I can do is educate them on the process, help with archicture, and maybe (but not always) help out with the coding - I charge a lot and they generally shop the rest out.

Re: I just need a programmer

#55

Post by yoshyosh » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:13 PM UTC

ssskai wrote: post #51

Question: If I were a "BizDev" guy and wanted to create a website that has similar functionalities as, say, Groupon or PayPal (I understand they're different), what languages would be best to learn? I would suspect some front-end GUI paired with a back-end database system would be needed, but what languages specifically would be best? As an entrepreneur with a degree in Mech. Eng. and Entrp., and I have done programm…

best to free lance those types of sites (groupon) since they don't require that much programming

Re: I just need a programmer

#56

Post by yoshyosh » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:24 PM UTC

naithemilkman wrote: post #41

I am currently one of these guys in transition. Using Gladwell's 10,000 hour as a proxy for mastery. I estimate getting between 100 - 250 hours of programming time is good enough to get a working MVP out. Does anyone think this is overly optimistic or unrealistic?

Ive read it takes about 6 months. To be honest a lot of it is about deliberate practice rather than just 'getting in the hours'

Re: I just need a programmer

#57

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:26 PM UTC

sethco wrote: post #50

geebee wrote: post #14

This is a good post. I'd take it one step farther. To say the idea is nothing without the execution still (kind of) suggests that they are different things. I think that where it comes to software, the execution is the idea. I wouldn't quite claim that ideas aren't worth much. I know a few academics, and they are rightly careful about sharing their ideas before they get far enough with the implementation (lab work, p…

The idea and the execution are inextricably linked even in the academic case. The ideas that your academic friends are protecting have value because they, with a reputation for execution, have decided to focus on them. I have some ideas on string theory which are precisely worthless, no matter how correct they may turn out to be.

[deleted]

Re: I just need a programmer

#58

Post by bad_user » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:30 PM UTC

lian wrote: post #32

jimbokun wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just happened to read Forbes write up on Reed Hastings (Netflix) as their CEO of the year. Turns out he has an M.S. C.S. from Stanford. Jobs did some programming and soldering logic boards. Gates wrote a BASIC interpreter with Paul Allen. Zuckerberg was in Harvard C.S., I believe, and wrote the first implementation of Facebook himself. Bezos has a B.S. in C.S. and Electrical Engineering. Larry, Sergey, Jerry Yang all…

Well, Apple could be a counterpoint if we're just talking about current CEOs. Steve Jobs has never been revered for his electronics skills, and it seems he kind of snuck in the back door in early jobs at Atari and HP. His specialty was always sales, whether selling Apple computers or selling himself. That said, if we're talking "founders," Steve Wozniak was built right in, and he's the computer guru we're looking for…

Steve had one competitive advantage: best friending Steve fucking Wozniak.

You know how that happened? They shared common interests, including knowledge of electronics, pulling pranks and passion for computers (yes, Jobs was technically competent enough).

And if I know one thing about %99.9999 of would-be entrepreneurs: they aren't best friends with someone like Wozniak.

Re: I just need a programmer

#59

Post by cot6mur3 » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:30 PM UTC

ssskai wrote: post #51

Question: If I were a "BizDev" guy and wanted to create a website that has similar functionalities as, say, Groupon or PayPal (I understand they're different), what languages would be best to learn? I would suspect some front-end GUI paired with a back-end database system would be needed, but what languages specifically would be best? As an entrepreneur with a degree in Mech. Eng. and Entrp., and I have done programm…

You need a templating + biz logic language, and a database. The usual starters for non-purists are PHP and MySQL. Also, most front-ends use JavaScript these days, often with a helper JavaScript library like JQuery.

Myself, I'm more of a Python (language) + PostgreSQL (database) person, but they may take a little longer to get up to speed with.

Re: I just need a programmer

#60

Post by krschultz » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 6:38 PM UTC

sgentle wrote: post #33

I see a lot of "just learn to program" around here, and I think it's all a bit glib and far from reality. Firstly, programming is hard . It's not the sort of thing you pick up in a few weeks. Hell, there are people who manage to make it through a CS degree and several years in industry without actually knowing what they're doing. What makes you think it's a valuable use of your time to do something mediocre that othe…

I don't think they need to learn how to program well enough to make the idea they had, but they should learn something about the process of software development. Even if that just means reading a couple books on managing softward development (almost anyone asking this question hasn't even spent 8 hours 1 day reading blogs like coding horror or joel on software).

Understanding some of the challenges in writing software, being able to succesfully communicate with their software developers, understanding that "build me twitter for pets" is not a spec etc.

I had someone come to me the other day and they thought they had a brilliant idea, if only I could put it together (but it would probably be easy). He described Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 to me. I told him it already existed. He was deflated.

Since he couldn't even understand what he was talking about, he wasn't really even able to do competitive analysis and didn't know these things existed.