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I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#11

Post by chamboo »

kevin_rubyhouse wrote: post #4

Hey how's it going? Sounds like you're in a great spot to pursue a goal, as soon as you've settled on what you'd like to do. How did the programming go over the past 276 days? ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3964837 ) How did your prototype come out? I somewhat agree with cjbenedikt about investing. The issue though is that without actually experiencing startup or being in the trenches with technology it is har…

Hey Kevin,

I never committed to it. I spent time questioning whether this was right for me, wavering between this and that, giving up, almost going back to work at what I was doing before. There have been some very dark days between then and now. I know nothing more about programming now than I did then. Every time I would sit down to start, I became overwhelmed and then didn't do anything. The recurring thought is 'there is just too much to learn'. 'The people getting into Ycombinator are Harvard/etc.. grads, why do I think I can compete'. These are illusions to some degree, but definitely kept me from making a move up to this point.

Thanks for this advice, I'll definitely follow up.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#12

Post by chamboo »

hipsters_unite wrote: post #5

>"it seemed a bit slow and thorough for what I'm trying to do" Okay, so as somebody who quit their job to learn to code (I just didn't realise that was what I was doing at the time), I'll say: if you are going to code you have to be thorough. Codeacademy is a good start. I began by doing pretty much everything on that site in a couple of 8hrs/day 7-day weeks. From there, Treehouse, Zed, books, blogs, StackOverflow...…

Thanks for these resources, never heard of the Rails tutorial, will definitely check it out. What area of the world do you live?

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#13

Post by klaut »

I would suggest you to do this:

First, ask yourself why you want to learn programming. Is it something that really excites you? Go watch some of the Destroy All Software[1] screencasts: do your hart jump everytime you see Gary orchestrate Vim with elegance? Are you eager to start molding your ruby/python code with his mastery? If the answers is yes, then just let yourself go and start learning: define an easy project and just try to build it up from scratch (watchign screencasts, reading tutorials along the way).

If the answer is no and all you want is to start a tech business, then perhaps it is better for you to hire/find a team?

Btw, if you want to discuss programming, bouncing ideas off and just general support chat, fire me an email (in my profile).

Good luck! :)

[1] https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#14

Post by chamboo »

cjbenedikt wrote: post #2

I wish I had your problem ;-)Where r u based? You don't need to learn how to code, there are excellent devs out there, find your mission/passion and spend some of your cash on it. One area could be mobile tech for develop. countries - exciting! Best of luck

Hey, I am currently in Dallas. I really have no ties here, I am considering picking up and moving, but not sure yet. I would definitely like to know some people who have worked on, or are working on something programming related. Part of the reason for me wanting to learn basic coding is to find my mission/passion. I have many interests, most too large probably to be feasible on any level, but I feel that as I become more aware of things that are missing in my life, more ideas pop into my head. I would like to be a little more prepared than I currently am in case the need arises, to put it coarsely.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#15

Post by chamboo »

mswen wrote: post #6

Over the past 14 months I have put myself through the same self-learning process with a similar goal. Be able to build full working prototypes of the web app ideas in my head. I am fully aware that if one of these start to get some customer traction I will need to have a more experienced dev help me deal with a whole variety of issues from scalability to security and a designer to help with UI/UX and visual appeal. A…

I basically have no technical background other than basic engineering, but nothing software related. On the bootcamps, do you personally know anyone who attended and recommended a specific one? I thought about doing this, but I heard mixed reviews (I know there are quite a few now).

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#16

Post by chamboo »

klaut wrote: post #13

I would suggest you to do this: First, ask yourself why you want to learn programming. Is it something that really excites you? Go watch some of the Destroy All Software[1] screencasts: do your hart jump everytime you see Gary orchestrate Vim with elegance? Are you eager to start molding your ruby/python code with his mastery? If the answers is yes, then just let yourself go and start learning: define an easy project…

Hey, thanks for the support. I admit I don't know enough about what was going on in that vid to make it exciting, but the thought of being able to make a website do whatever I want to sounds incredibly fulfilling.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#17

Post by cjbenedikt »

chamboo wrote: post #14
cjbenedikt wrote: post #2

I wish I had your problem ;-)Where r u based? You don't need to learn how to code, there are excellent devs out there, find your mission/passion and spend some of your cash on it. One area could be mobile tech for develop. countries - exciting! Best of luck

Hey, I am currently in Dallas. I really have no ties here, I am considering picking up and moving, but not sure yet. I would definitely like to know some people who have worked on, or are working on something programming related. Part of the reason for me wanting to learn basic coding is to find my mission/passion. I have many interests, most too large probably to be feasible on any level, but I feel that as I become…

Hmmm, I'm beginning to think that maybe you should formulate WHAT you want to do before you get to the HOW. Maybe it'll turn out coding may only be a small part of it. Building a start-up goes way beyond coding. Jeff Bezos never coded yet look at where Amazon is today...Just a thought

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#18

Post by klaut »

chamboo wrote: post #16
klaut wrote: post #13

I would suggest you to do this: First, ask yourself why you want to learn programming. Is it something that really excites you? Go watch some of the Destroy All Software[1] screencasts: do your hart jump everytime you see Gary orchestrate Vim with elegance? Are you eager to start molding your ruby/python code with his mastery? If the answers is yes, then just let yourself go and start learning: define an easy project…

Hey, thanks for the support. I admit I don't know enough about what was going on in that vid to make it exciting, but the thought of being able to make a website do whatever I want to sounds incredibly fulfilling.

then just try make it do ;)

Does not have to be something big. Perhaps just playing tic-tac-toe with your web app can be a start. or not even that. You don;t have to build a web app from the beginning. Try building a simple console app first. It's much easier.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#19

Post by klaut »

chamboo wrote: post #16
klaut wrote: post #13

I would suggest you to do this: First, ask yourself why you want to learn programming. Is it something that really excites you? Go watch some of the Destroy All Software[1] screencasts: do your hart jump everytime you see Gary orchestrate Vim with elegance? Are you eager to start molding your ruby/python code with his mastery? If the answers is yes, then just let yourself go and start learning: define an easy project…

Hey, thanks for the support. I admit I don't know enough about what was going on in that vid to make it exciting, but the thought of being able to make a website do whatever I want to sounds incredibly fulfilling.

you can start with Ruby Koans: http://rubykoans.com

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#20

Post by bones6 »

chamboo wrote: post #7
argimenes wrote: post #3

In my experience it is not unusual that an intelligent, ambitious, and creative person finds themselves at a crossroad in their late twenties. Perhaps it began in adolescence, even childhood, where they knew that they had an above-average intelligence and a mind open to possibilities -- but, at the same time, a grave sense of self doubt existed, which only grew year by year as ambitious projects floundered and others…

"For example, if you believe that smart people are smart because they do clever things easily -- then your brain can start to believe that if you find something hard to do, it is proof of your stupidity. The brain then finds ways to avoid this painful conflict between ego-image and reality -- by dreaming up great ambitions and projects, but then shying away from realising them. Or, you can develop an aversion to "les…

My advice would be do something seriously FUN as a first project. Do you have a hobby that could be a springboard? For example, I love Radio-Controlled stuff. So a project could be arduino controlled R/C car/drone. A little coding and a little wiring with real results. It's not trivial, but it's not over the top difficult either. That's my example, but try to get a concrete project to tackle. You will learn what you need to learn in the journey to finish it.
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