Learning to Program is STUPID! (or SMART?!)

[luniac]

In my humble opinion the question is too vague and without elaboration the answer is almost always yes.
For example:
I use existing software for app development. This means i DON'T have to learn how to code low level graphics API, Sound API, Physics API, Native iOS, Native Android, etc etc etc
But i still write code within the software as part of utilizing all the stuff that i didn't have to code.
But even then, there are further plugins that are designed to remove coding completely, but the more you remove coding the more constrained you get with what you can do. Generally speaking however, when there's a will there's a way.

The real question should be how low level are you willing to go regarding coding. I picked a high level because i wanted to focus on making my apps while minimizing the coding i have to do without overly restricting myself regarding what kind of programs i can make.

However if you become a real coding expert, then you can make a great fastlane business coding tools for high level programmers like me. God knows i've already spent hundreds on plugins that make my life easier(most of the time).

It's not a binary question(pun intended)

 

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[Jaan]

I think knowing how to program is the best thing that could have happened to me. I have been programming past 13+ years and I still enjoy it a lot.

 

[vitality11]

And the common factor in those transactions is YOU. If you have joined the INSIDERS you can listen to my podcast on how to hire good workers off Elance so you don't get screwed. I almost always have 3-4 active outsourcing projects going and have for the last 8-9 years and have built a really good business on it.

Thank you very much for sharing your perspective.
Mine was definitely limited. Fortunately, I am not alone in this and have friend(s) who are much better at programming than I am to help me in that department as needed.
One thing that I might do is to marry your advice here. With some apps, you just need to know X and Y and Z.
Learning Z from scratch by myself can take a while. What I am thinking...if I know for sure that all I need to know is Z - then I can pay a freelancer to teach me how to program it (tutor style). That way I don't waste time learning stuff myself while also learning the thing and not just outsourcing it.

 

[sija1]

The good thing about programming is that it develops patience and attention to detail. Not to mention that if you learn to code in Java for example, you will know what objects, instances, classes, methods and APIs are in every other OOP language.

 

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[Y.A. Batal]

What i get Entrepreneur road >Sales and marketing.
Technical entrepreneur road if you had updated new technology and some one who is good at sales .

 

[Delmania]

Learning to code is definitely not stupid given that software is eating the world. But, as has been said, learning to code to be an entrepreneur is not a good idea. If you think you can learn to code (and code well) in a few months, read Peter Norvig's article on the matter. However, if you already know how to code, that's definitely an advantage. If you want to learn to code, I'd recommend doing it AFTER you have launched something, and doing it because you are genuinely interested in it.

 

[nicotini]

Guys you just saved me. Was wondering today if it would be the case to learn coding for the idea I'm going to realise. This thread opened my eyes, thank you.

 

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[adiakritos]

Guys you just saved me. Was wondering today if it would be the case to learn coding for the idea I'm going to realise. This thread opened my eyes, thank you.

What did you choose?

 

[nicotini]

What did you choose?

Copy! Influenced by the fact I actually have a good number of friends/acquaintances who can code, so I think it's more convenient at this point to stack some money to let them do the work for me.

 

[hellolin]

Coding is optional if you want to build a business in tech, but reading "The lean startup" isn't.

 

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[Designz23]

I still don't understand why people here want to learn to code!

Spend that time learning to market and write sales copy. Spending 1000 hours to learn to code to spend 200 hours writing an app is STUPID.

Spend the 1000 hours learning to market and write copy, and you can use that skill for the life of the app, plus the life of the next app, and other peoples apps AND it makes you money. Writing code just means you have something, but it won't sell itself.

Here is how it will work if you learn to code:
1000 hours learning to code.
200 hours writing an app.
wait for a sale, wait some more, wait some more.
Spend 1000 hours learning to market and write copy.
sell some of your app
spend 150 hours fixing bugs and responding to support issues because your app is crap because it takes 5000 hours to really learn how to code.
get frustrated and yank your app because of the PITA factor and all the bad reviews of your app.


Learn to market and write copy:
1000 hours learning to market and write code, while that 1000 hours is going on, pay someone that has 10,000 hours of training on apps to write your app.
Start marketing your app immediately.
Sell lots of your app.
Pass any support issues to the developer
Sell lots more of your app.
Create 3 more apps and market the hell out of them
Go to the bank often to deposit checks.

Do you SEE the difference????

In my experience do-it-yourselfers often fail or get hung-up. Why learn to code when you can hire someone like me? Turn months and years of potential work into just a few hours of getting your new software or website up. All you do is check the pages and request changes. The professional does the changes, save that time for other good uses. I personally give my clients an unlimited change guarantee. My coding projects have made millions for my clients and are built to last a lifetime. Why take the risk of doing it yourself?

 

[ApeRunner]

In my experience do-it-yourselfers often fail or get hung-up. Why learn to code when you can hire someone like me? Turn months and years of potential work into just a few hours of getting your new software or website up. All you do is check the pages and request changes. The professional does the changes, save that time for other good uses. I personally give my clients an unlimited change guarantee. My coding projects have made millions for my clients and are built to last a lifetime. Why take the risk of doing it yourself?

Somebody is selling his services here...

 

[luniac]

In my experience do-it-yourselfers often fail or get hung-up. Why learn to code when you can hire someone like me? Turn months and years of potential work into just a few hours of getting your new software or website up. All you do is check the pages and request changes. The professional does the changes, save that time for other good uses. I personally give my clients an unlimited change guarantee. My coding projects have made millions for my clients and are built to last a lifetime. Why take the risk of doing it yourself?

What about the middle ground option?

I make game apps. I write gameplay code however i also "outsource" virtually all functionality not directly related to the gameplay.

I didn't code a game engine from scratch, that would be reinventing the wheel. I use Unity3D.
Using Unity3D means i didn't have to code rendering, physics, specific platform integrations, audio, ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC the list goes on.
I didn't code the core of my social features or various utility functionalities that improve my game performance, I purchased well supported plugins on the Unity3D asset store.

I do my best to minimize the coding i have to do while still maintaining enough flexibility to make the game i want to make.

To be fair "games" are very difficult to outsource well because so much of what makes a game fun is how it feels to play. Try getting it right with an outsourced developer. Your game will be functionally correct but it might just not feel right, and then you'll have to customize it further and watch your costs skyrocket.

Now over the last 2 years i have spent hundreds of dollars on plugins for Unity3d so that i can code less and do more with my time.

Creating a no bullshit polished gaming experience that can actually entertain people and earn real money has been the greatest challenge of my life, however it just feels right for me. I can't really imagine outsourcing.

But who knows... maybe I should have started saving up years back and just outsourced? I don't know... but im in too deep now doing it myself to just quit...

BESIDES, its still not a complete waste of time to get some hands on experience with what you want to create. It will REALLY help you if you want to outsource something in the future.
You'll have a better sense of what can be done in what amount of time, and your expectations will be way more realistic.
You'll be able to much better describe your project using "tech speak". Just understanding the various components that make up a complete software product will help tremendously.

I'm pretty confident that with my hands on experience making game apps i could successfully outsource a puzzle type or trivia game or something, something not relying on physics for example because that would require a ton of customization and testing that would get crazy expensive as the dev hours start adding up.

At least i'll know what kind of ideas i definitely should NOT outsource, because they would get crazy expensive. That's pretty important to know IMO to not sink a bunch of hard earned money into something and walking away dissapointed.


POINT IS: It's not the end of the world if you started coding first, you can always outsource stuff later and your coding experience will help.

 

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[NoMess]

This is a really funny thread with lots of different opinions. So why not weigh in with my 2 cents.

I'm pretty darn good at IT for some reason, don't know why but it's a gift. My wife is the exact opposite, don't know why but it's her curse.

Can I code: sure. Did I go to school for it, nope. Am I good at it: compared to my wife I am, compared to a "real' developer, I'm not. It's all perspective. But I can get by if I really need to. I don't know exactly how many programming languages I know or can dabble in. I don't even know how many database types I've messed with over the years. Both have been a few. However, I can say that once you get the basics, the variations are close enough to understand what's going on.

Here's the cool thing: I know the amount of effort it takes to do something. At least within reason. So for me, if I go to outsource a project and I get quotes for $10, $100, $500 and $1,000, I can tell which are the BS quotes. That's a huge variance and you must wonder why would there be a $990 difference. BTW - this really does happen on eLance and other sites like that.

Like I said, I know some coding, I will know which price is real and in the ball-park I should be paying. That is if I expect to finish my project and I want someone with good to great coding skills. Sometimes, I'll be cheap and roll the dice on a new person who bid the $10 just to garner some positive feedback. Yep, all could be real quotes! $10 = new guy, $100 to $500 = overseas, $1,000 = US based. All of them can get the job done but some come with more barriers than others.

Should everyone learn to code? Not everyone can learn to code so it's a loaded question.

I suggest, if it's possible, learn what you can about coding at a high level. Selectively do what you can to understand what you're hiring others to do.

If you can't code, no big deal: partner with someone who knows more than you. You can even hire someone to review/write your project requirements and tell you what you should be paying if it's a sizable project.

Just don't make this a big thing because it's just another distraction that delays you game plan.

Also, ensure you ALWAYS have detailed requirements for hiring coders. Don't post things like: build me a website. Add as many details as possible to keep your price real and the deliverables accountable.

Coders are like anyone else - if they think you don't know what you're talking about they will steam roll you, potentially not deliver and it'll typically cost you more than you needed to pay.

That may have been more like 4 cents worth of opinion.

 

[suvv]

Thanks for posting this, I can't agree more!

I always cringe when people write that they want to learn how to code. Its not worth it. It takes too long and as soon as you learned the basics there are 1000 things that changed on the technology side. Learn marketing and sales. Use your time to find a need. Don't learn to program if you want to be an entrepreneur. Even the great entrepreneurs in technology only coded the first prototype themselves and then let the specialists take over.

That said, I think every internet/technology entrepreneur should know about the basic technologies that his business is based on. The people wanting to start an ecommerce empire without knowing how to set up a site themselves are just as bad as the guys wanting to learn programming. This is also vital if you're eventually outsourcing/hiring for the technology/programming part, you won't get what you want/need if you don't have a clue what you are talking about.

I've learned Python, Lua, HTML, and CSS. Lua took me 3 days, I learned CSS and HTML in the same day and I learned Python in a week. I'm not trying to be a show off, but it takes everyone different amounts of time to learn coding languages.

 

[Late Start]

This is something I've been putting a lot of thought into lately. I mean, I've been in IT for 16 plus years now, but never coding - my passion was always on the hardware side. That fact alone makes me wonder if I should jump in, as if I had a genuine passion for it, wouldn't I have done more dabbling with it by now aside from a couple of rudimentary courses on VB an C++ at the local community college? The Gates, Zuckerbergs, etc all built their empires on their own code, but as was pointed out earlier, they all had a major passion for coding well before the idea of using it to make money occurred to them. That said, there seems to be a lot of potential in things like SaaS, etc.

 

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[Mr.Donnerhuhn]

This is something I've been putting a lot of thought into lately. I mean, I've been in IT for 16 plus years now, but never coding - my passion was always on the hardware side. That fact alone makes me wonder if I should jump in, as if I had a genuine passion for it, wouldn't I have done more dabbling with it by now aside from a couple of rudimentary courses on VB an C++ at the local community college? The Gates, Zuckerbergs, etc all built their empires on their own code, but as was pointed out earlier, they all had a major passion for coding well before the idea of using it to make money occurred to them. That said, there seems to be a lot of potential in things like SaaS, etc.

I'd say if you can genuinely conjure up the motivation to go hard and learn C++, go for it. But on a more realistic note, I'd say check out something like codecademy and try the basic courses of HTML/CSS, if you can grasp the core principles of object-oriented programming easily then you should be able to transition to more dense code like C++ with relative ease.

 

[DogsBreakfast]

I remember reading this thread about a year ago and being on the fence between coding on marketing. After learning code for 3 months, some failed businesses and still being nowhere, I've decided to learn only copy and marketing.

Also I'm happy I have a basic understanding of code now. Now I think I know what I need if I was to hire someone.

 

[Alan LT]

I remember reading this thread about a year ago and being on the fence between coding on marketing. After learning code for 3 months, some failed businesses and still being nowhere, I've decided to learn only copy and marketing.

Also I'm happy I have a basic understanding of code now. Now I think I know what I need if I was to hire someone.

I've come to the point where I don't see coding as useless. If you have time to learn it,then do it. On the other hand, I personally don't want to sit hours in front of a screen creating "okay" code when instead I could pay someone to create a great product.I try to create or get the best product possible and I have no interest in delivering okay work. I rather put all my focus somewhere else. It's better to strengthen your strengths than to strengthen your weaknesses.

Nevertheless, if something needs a touch up I can do it myself and not have to pay someone else to do it for me. Also, I don't have to worry about giving someone a cut or trying to steal my work. Overall, if you can learn something and apply it usefully, then it will serve as a great tool.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[Brentnal]

After reading this whole thread for hours i came to the conclusion that.... i gotta sleep, this is just to much. So many different opinions jeez.
It feels like after reading all this that nobody really knows what they are talking about. I think that it depends on the person if you should learn to program/code everybody has a different life you know...

Reading this thread made me think about learning to copy all the big guys in this forum are talking about it. Anybody knows some good threads i should read?

Oh and healthstatus can you elaborate further on the following you said:

Learn how to make money (and then make some),

I think everybody on this forum wants to learn how to make money, either trough programming or coding doesn't matter.
It seems easy like the way you said it while it isn't atleast not for the big bucks.
I am currently looking for skills to learn, i have no skills whatsoever that could make me money, you seem like a smart person what advice would you give a young person like me? You need to learn to market and copy according to you, but aren't there already so many great marketeers and copywriters out there? How could you possibly make enough money to outsource your coding to some expert coders within a few years?
alot of things are overlooked in peoples reactions on this thread....

 

[Delmania]

How could you possibly make enough money to outsource your coding to some expert coders within a few years?

When Pat Flynn developed his Podcast Player, he had identified a need in the market, a way to give people the ability to play their podcasts on a website, without require listeners to use iTunes, Stitcher, etc. He didn't build it, outright, however, he mentioned his idea to a few other people in his audience, and they gave him money in exchange for being a lifetime subscriber and having early access. He didn't build it however, he used the money he got from his supporters to pay his team to build the application.

Your job is to identify a solution to a need in the marketplace, and then flesh it out enough to present to your audience, and gauge the response. If people are willing pay you in advance for the solution, you take that money and hire a developer. This is exactly how many crowd sourcing sites like Kickstarter, GoFundMe, etc, all work. There's no need to spend time learning to code and building an application unless you know it will sell. That's why writing copy and learning basic marketing is important. You're not aiming to be a master copywriter, you're aiming to sell your idea.

I've been writing software for a decade now; I have my Master's Degree in Computer Science. If a young person, such as yourself, were to ask me if you should learn to program, my response would be "do you enjoy it?" Many good software developers have launched businesses using their skills, but every one of them had to learn marketing. Learning to code to launch your own business is not something I'd advise. Learning to code because you enjoy it is worth it, because you can leverage something you enjoy, which always make work light.

 

[adiakritos]

After reading this whole thread for hours i came to the conclusion that.... i gotta sleep, this is just to much. So many different opinions jeez.
It feels like after reading all this that nobody really knows what they are talking about. I think that it depends on the person if you should learn to program/code everybody has a different life you know...

Reading this thread made me think about learning to copy all the big guys in this forum are talking about it. Anybody knows some good threads i should read?

Oh and healthstatus can you elaborate further on the following you said:


I think everybody on this forum wants to learn how to make money, either trough programming or coding doesn't matter.
It seems easy like the way you said it while it isn't atleast not for the big bucks.
I am currently looking for skills to learn, i have no skills whatsoever that could make me money, you seem like a smart person what advice would you give a young person like me? You need to learn to market and copy according to you, but aren't there already so many great marketeers and copywriters out there? How could you possibly make enough money to outsource your coding to some expert coders within a few years?
alot of things are overlooked in peoples reactions on this thread....

Here's my $25 cents.

First, this is a motto I live by who I learned from Mark Cuban, which is...

Luck = Opportunity + Preparation.

Now, let me offer you two stories.

First is my friend, lets call him Brennan.

Brennan started out as an internet marketer. He learned to write copy, did all different kinds of SEO (white hat, black at, gray hat, purple hat - lol jk), PPC back when ads were cheaper, and also learned to design for the web very early on *before* programming. He pushed these skills to the point he was making an average living - around $50-$70k - per year, and he was about 24 years old at the time. Around 24-25 he started building website for money. He continue to learn programming and frameworks and all that and built a website with Wordpress that made a ton of money (in addition to a handful of other business ventures). Re-made it with an application framework, and used the profits from that business to pay experts in various fields like PPC, social marketing, writers, programmers...etc Now he's about to sell that business for a massive profit and buy himself an Porsche 918. That's in addition to continuing to push his skills as a programmer and designer, AND holding a full time remote job as a programmer/designer. As a result, he's an absolute beast with programming and very very good at design, and is able to do the work of like 3 people himself, faster than a team of 3. He has a business partner who is a billionaire, and they're partnering in a company already worth around $10M a year.


Now my story.


I'm 25. I started out more of a developer while going to college. I dabbled in internet marketing but didn't push hard enough to get results like Brennan did. I decided to focus more on web development and design more than anything else, because I see the value it has from observing his path. I love it, I can do it until 4am every night, and I can see myself continuing to develop these skills well into the future. I'm more advanced a developer than he was at my current age. But how do you make money in the short run as a mid-level developer and designer without much marketing skill? Well, currently I do that by working as a contractor. It's not recurring, but it adds to my skill set, and I concurrently work on my Fastlane projects. The trajectory of my life may end up similar to Brennan's, especially if we partner up on future projects together as I become more beastly at developing. If not, I still will be beastly at making applications. When I get 1 hit, whether small or large, that cash goes into reinvestment in the form of labor, advertising..etc I have some advertising knowledge, and maybe it's enough to speed things up. I'll have the skill to iterate my software as I get people asking for this or that..etc And it'll just be upward from there. Doors will open like the opened for Brennan. When I can sell and/or replace myself to start new businesses, I won't need startup money - I can do it mostly myself. And if I can't, well I'll have the money at that point to bootstrap.


The point of what I'm trying to say is that Entrepreneurs * Allocate Resources To Produce Value *, and then sell that value. It doesn't matter where you start so long as you start and gogogogogogogo. IMO I say sell your soul to the grind and it will happen for you.


So with that said - is it worth it? If you like it enough to push yourself until you become beastly, hell yeah. If not, don't bother. Do something you CAN do for years to come. That's all I've got. Hope this inspires or helps someone.

 

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[fhs8]

Of course learning to program is worth it. You can run out of money developing a program, have someone rip you off, steal your idea, or put in a backdoor. As an anecdote someone tried to charge be $1,800 to implement a reservation date option on my website. I ended up doing it myself for free. $1,800 saved. Lots of overseas people (even domestic) put in backdoors on websites in case they don't get paid so they can go in your website and delete their work or worse ruin your website. Only problem is that they tend to leave the backdoors even after getting paid. What I'm saying happens a LOT more than you think. Maybe 50% of overseas coders place backdoors. If you don't want to learn how to program for something that you need to learn how to program then you're in the wrong industry. It's like opening a bakery without knowing anything about baking. Hiring people doesn't fix all those little details that a real baker would spot.

Re-made it with an application framework, and used the profits from that business to pay experts in various fields like PPC, social marketing, writers, programmers...etc Now he's about to sell that business for a massive profit and buy himself an Porsche 918.

Buying a Porsche 918 would be a total waste of money. That's not what smart businessmen do. Even if someone is worth $10mil that's still 10% of after-tax income or almost $2mil pre-tax income for that car (after sales tax as well).

To end my point. If you don't know how to program then you shouldn't get near any app or software service with a 10 foot pole. You're also likely to be lazy, overconfident, and think that money will fall on your head. It's out of your expertise/league and you won't be able to manage your business correctly and the people who work for you won't care. You're also less likely to get any funding because you won't know what you're talking about and more likely to need money due to hiring people for things that you should've been able to do. Most people only care about getting their paychecks and will try to do the minimal amount of work for one. Now there's always exceptions but probability wise I think you'd be much more likely to fail than in an industry that you actually know something about.

The first language you should learn after English shouldn't be Spanish, Chinese, or French. It should be PHP, Python, or Swift.

 

[Torty Emmanuel]

Thats absolutely right. But the fact that you and others who are pro-code-learning ignore is that all those famous technology founders who coded themselves were programmers BEFORE they even thought about starting a business. They were programmers and saw a need in the market to put their skills to use. Not the other way around as people on this board.

Don't get me wrong, I think programming/web development is a great skill to have as an entrepreneur. I started building websites etc when I was 10 or 11, back when the web was completely different. And this experience definitely helps me in my thinking today. But if I would start today I wouldn't learn how to program, because there are enough cheap programmers available to build a prototype for you. What I would learn though are the big picture concepts of web/app development, tools like mockup-creation, be familiar with the technologies out there (e.g. know what programming/scripting languages exist and what they are used for, understand different database concepts, sql vs. nosql etc). Don't learn programming, but learn how to work with programmers to achieve the results you want.

Th

Thank you for putting this argument in the correct context. I'm a software engineer already but I'm seriously learning how to write copy/sales letter because I know that no matter what software I create, if I cannot successfully persuade and convince my clients of the value of the software, I'll lose DOLLARS and TIME. I'm naturally good at communicating my ideas to all sorts of people but I have to work hard(copywriting) to take it to the next level.

 

[Chris Veal]

People try and justify learning to code by saying they don't have enough money to pay for app development. (and when I say app I mean any computer/web/phone code). If you learn to write copy, you can sell an affiliate product, or just write good text ads and make enough to pay for your app development.

I made my living for 20 years writing code and managing programmers, I have made a MUCH better living now that I write good copy. I know what I am talking about.

I have a couple of trips coming up, and I already have my sales letters ready to go to sell three different products from my website, these will generate me several thousand dollars of spending money for my trips. Learning to write good sales copy is like turning your computer into an ATM.

I've worked for 30 years as a developer working for the man. They've been making money off my mental energy long enough. I wish I had found copywriting as a young man. Oh well, never too late to change. I'm making it happen now.

But, a technical background can come in handy to set yourself apart. For instance, i'm working with a printing shop that wants Constant Contact. So, i used my software skills to sweeten the deal by assisting in the email campaign setup. (Add value where you can).

 

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[Delmania]

Thank you for putting this argument in the correct context. I'm a software engineer already but I'm seriously learning how to write copy/sales letter because I know that no matter what software I create, if I cannot successfully persuade and convince my clients of the value of the software, I'll lose DOLLARS and TIME. I'm naturally good at communicating my ideas to all sorts of people but I have to work hard(copywriting) to take it to the next level.

I've worked for 30 years as a developer working for the man. They've been making money off my mental energy long enough. I wish I had found copywriting as a young man. Oh well, never too late to change. I'm making it happen now.

But, a technical background can come in handy to set yourself apart. For instance, i'm working with a printing shop that wants Constant Contact. So, i used my software skills to sweeten the deal by assisting in the email campaign setup. (Add value where you can).

In the same vein that learning to code is not required to start a business, neither is learn to write sales copy. You can pay for that on Upwork, Fiverr, etc, or you can get something like "Marketing For Developers". Learn only what you need as you need it.

You do not need to learn to write sales copy, you need to learn to market. That's finding a segment, mining out a problem, building a solution, and then showing it to people.

 

[bob johnson]

pretty sure kevin oleary of shark tank fame can't code. He partnered with a programmer and made millions in software.

 

[Dwee]

pretty sure kevin oleary of shark tank fame can't code. He partnered with a programmer and made millions in software.

By that same token O' Leary's partner, who didn't know how to market or do copywriting, partnered with someone who could and made millions in sales.

There are two sides to every partnership that involves a programmer and a marketer/businessman. I think it's important to keep that perspective, especially in this thread. Both skills can lead to amazing wealth, especially when a partner can step in to fill in skill-set gaps.

 

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[lowtek]

One thing that is missing from this discussion, at least I haven't seen it, is the fact that "coding" is more than just "coding".

A proper software solution to a business problem is a feat of ENGINEERING. Like any and all engineering, it requires great care and diligence.

Consider an analogy. Suppose you were having a new building constructed for your business. If you're not a proper engineer, but happen to have many years of experience in building backyard sheds, would you attempt to do the engineering yourself? Probably not. Would you outsource that engineering to the lowest bidder in India or Pakistan, who may not know or care about building codes and practices in your native country? Again, probably not.

The question of "should one code" or not, is far more nuanced than a simple calculation of dollars spent vs. hours worked for the Entrepreneur.

If you have the mind of an engineer or scientist, and already know how to code, then rolling your own software may be for you. However, at the very least, you want to outsource the least value added portions of the job. If you're building some analytical SaaS, this would mean that you write the backend logic (i.e. the actual core of the software) and hire someone to do the front end design and interface to back end. IMHO, THAT is the correct entrepreneurial decision for the person who is currently a coder and has the engineering/scientific mindset.

If you are NOT the engineering type, that's fine. We can't all be badass ballers with the mind of a F*cking scientist. I get it.

What you NEED to do, however, is find someone who is. This means you have to do some research yourself. Know what makes good code, and what makes shitty code. Since you're the entrepreneur type, you're probably into reading books. A great book to read is "Code Complete". Another one is "Clean Code". Pick them up and check them out, so that you can at least ask intelligent and meaningful questions of your freelancer to know if they're producing a quality and robust product, or are just some hack that is going to set you up for failure down the road.

TL;DR - No matter which way you lean on this, it's your responsibility to know what makes good code. It's YOUR business on the line if the code isn't robust, scalable, and safe. It's your imperative to pick up a good book on the subject and learn the fundamentals.

 

[GIlman]

Knowing how to code will open up certain opportunities that those who do not know how to code will miss.

But this can be said for every skill such as copywriting, marketing, SEO, etc.

Just learn as much as you can. Learn what you enjoy, learn what you need.

The more you learn the more you earn. As long as you are willing to bust your a$$ and apply your knawlege.


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