Should a Non-Technical Co-Founder Learn a Language?

http://erik.randomdrivel.com/articles/26/should-a-non-technical-co-founder-learn-a-language/?sms_ss=hackernews&at_xt=4dd48742268c8ee8%2C0

by erik_p • 15 years ago

1 4 15 years ago

erik.randomdrivel.com

jsavimbi2• 15 years ago

So basically, they should improve their English and let the developers do the work.

Not that I'm saying that once one commits to a non-technical role that they abandon all hope of acquiring technical language skills, but what I am saying is that unless they're dedicated to learning and using that language 100% of the time, then they're never going to be a significant contributor to the product and it'll end up taking away from their contributions to the other 1000 things they're supposed to be doing.

erik_p2• 15 years ago

I don't think that's what I meant at all... fwiw. I'm saying working on things that help them articulate visually their ideas quickly.

The act of learning a bit of HTML/CSS or Rails/PHP/etc makes the non-technical founder a better non-technical founder, but my suggestion is to focus on tools that improve the conveyance of ideas/features/etc. shrug

jsavimbi2• 15 years ago

If taken from the context that the un-technical co-founder will be conceptualizing, if not creating, the product UI itself, then yes, by all means, this person should get out of their comfort zone and gather as much knowledge and learn as many toolsets as they can and in order to at least be able to transfer their ideas into a visual system of sorts until someone with the appropriate expertise comes around and implements their vision.

Depending on the level of investment that a company is putting into their UX, then maybe this approach makes sense if you're going to be trolling the Craigslists looking for a student who needs to pimp out their portfolio in exchange for a hot meal, but in all seriousness, treating UX like some low-hanging fruit that a business person is going to pick up after a couple of Frontpage tutorials is ludicrous, not to mention downright insulting to anyone who practices the craft. I believe the same applies to anyone who works in the middle-tier or back-end. If the non-technical co-founder is smart enough to partner themselves with a technical person whom they can trust to make the right technical decisions while sharing responsibility for the costs, then they won't need to be poking around in the details trying to micromanage something they have no inkling of understanding, never mind actually designing, developing, deploying, maintaining, troubleshooting or fixing should everything go south.

I'll go back to my original premise: learn to communicate well in English, both in spoken and written form.

A person who can master that will be at an advantage of selling the company's product, services or team to any client, partner, potential employee or investor over someone who cannot speak publicly, has grammar issues and spends their time fucking around with powerpoint-related technologies. Effective communication starts with language, not toolsets, in my most humble opinion.

Should a Non-Technical Co-Founder Learn a Language?

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