Ask HN: Starting a company with tech you don't know fully

1 points by FameofLight 14 years ago | 5 comments

I was trying to build this product over weekend.I know a little bit of Ruby on Rails ( really small ) have to search for almost everything on internet. The main mistake I did was with Ruby on Rails I started with lots of plugin twitter bootstrap , haml , devise , cancan ]. Now after 12 hours I analysed where am I, I didn't find it quite encourage.

I thought its better to stick with tech, you know I know a little bit of PHP , Mysql, JQuery so started writing this in PHP CodeIgniter . Although I was able to get better than ROR application in next 12 hours and it was easy to understand and I was able to followup quite easily. But I am writing lots of stuff is which available for free better designed solution in ROR in PHP from ground zero.

In long term I think it would make more sense to use ROR, not only from building the product. But if the current product fail I would be able to produce more app faster.

What you think, do you have any piece of advice for me.

seanmccann 14 years ago |

Use what you know, but that said, some tools can produce a better product, faster.

Building products is a marathon so you might as well learn Rails. Purchase some begineer screencasts and don't worry (right now) about anything advanced like testing. Forget about haml and sass initially. Just learn Ruby and Rails. A solid understanding of Ruby is very important.

Rails, like anything, takes much longer than 12 hours to learn. Familiarity with CodeIgnighter can reduce the initial Rails learning curve.

FameofLight 14 years ago | |

Yes reducing the dependence on plugin / library and following upon learning as I am building is my motto. Sticking to rails.

seanmccann 14 years ago | | |

Over time there are plenty of gems that can save a significant amount of time. Struggle first, learn, and then start using some of the gems in the future.

zensavona 14 years ago |

Learn to crawl before you walk, but don't bog yourself down in textbooks.

Try to find tutorials on the specific things you need to do rather than general courses, complete those, see where you're at and give it another crack. If you still are having trouble, rinse and repeat.

FameofLight 14 years ago | |

Do you mean I should stick with Ruby on Rails.