Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup(blog.wepay.com) |
Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup(blog.wepay.com) |
Yes, yes, and more yes. When programmers say "possible," they mean before the heat death of the universe. That doesn't mean all possible things are automatically trivial, despite their apparent obviousness.
I said possible, but I never agreed to that schedule!
<venting> Seriously. Please don't condescendingly explain something technical, incorrectly, to someone who already understands it. AHHHHRGG! </venting>
On the other hand, it teaches patience. Patience is worth a lot. When I first began tutoring comp sci students, I learned that, even among the technically inclined, you will need to sit through an enormous amount of misunderstandings and mind-numbing attempts to keep the ol' neurons firing just so. Think you have patience? Try teaching.
I picked up tutoring on the side to earn some extra money. As a side-effect, I feel like it's helping my skills in dealing with clients, programming, and teaching.
EDIT: Also, I love pair programming. Don't know about other people, but I feel as though I'm easily twice as productive on my normal days, even though I might be on an absolute roll by myself a couple times a week. It also seems to be easier to avoid design pitfalls or unnecessary debugging with an extra set of eyes on the code (as it's written).
I had the experience (that I imagine a lot of people share) of being hired by a non-technical founder in a start-up, who then wanted to micro-manage and give input on every minute decision that went into the building of the UI, even to the detrement of the user experience.
There's a whole big market out there for people who can execute the full 100% while everyone else stops after the easy 90. Case in point: Apple.
Learn How to Code. Simple as that.
There's a legal restriction on Professional Engineer and the P.Eng designation, but that's for very good reasons which have to do with liability and the protection of the public. That's a different beast, though, and in the general case "engineering" a solution to a problem is still engineering, whether or not you have a piece of paper telling you it is.
That's what they'll teach you at engineering school. Not everyone who is writing software is engineering.