The ability to write good, useful software does not come over night. A lot of people on this site have been programming for a long time.
It's not because you're a business guy that you'll probably never build anything useful, but because you haven't invested the time most programmers-of-useful-software have. Programming skill is mainly a function of time with an intelligence multiplier. The number of things within the world of programming that you don't know you don't know, is staggering. And you need to know a large amount of inter-related pieces of knowledge to build anything useful.
As an example, I recently built a 'web application' which will send a student an email when a college course that they want opens up at Virginia Tech (http://hokienotify.me). I haven't worked on it in a while, but it took me about three days to write from conception to what you see now.
Let me list the technologies/bodies of knowledge that are involved in this relatively simple application.
- Front end
- HTML/CSS/jQuery (Javascript)
- PHP
- Form validation and other data sanitation
- UX/UI
- Back end
- Python
- Regular Expressions
- MySQL
- Linux server administration
- Apache
- Bash scripting
- Cron
It only took me three days to write, but in reality, it took me 10 years.
To reiterate, it's not because you're a business guy, but because it's a long journey from "Javascript is like Java but simpler" to a real, useful piece of software.
Edit: I hope I'm not being discouraging. Programming is fun, and you should definitely continue with it. As you work at it, you get better. Good luck!
I know building useful things is hard and I know it takes time. But I really don't know why that means I automatically have limited effective potential by factor X. It's as if your trying to intimidate me, and I don't know if you're smug or have a big ego or are being honestly truthful, or all the above. You already know I'm new to Java, why do you feel the need express the overwhelming complexities and difficulties in building software?
Maybe because of that one line, you assumed I was an idiot (only partially true!). Maybe its because you don't know I work in an MVC framework building web pages everyday, or that I admin our servers through SSH. Or that I've built MySQL tables, PHP contact forms, and even used PayPal's API once to forward customers to a download page where they could retrieve the product they paid for.
So yeah, you're pretty damned discouraging. That's how I feel unfortunately when I read some of these comments on HN.
"As a startup enthusiast whose never learned how to code" seems to be the opposite of "Maybe its because you don't know I work in an MVC framework building web pages everyday, or that I admin our servers through SSH. Or that I've built MySQL tables, PHP contact forms, and even used PayPal's API once to forward customers to a download page where they could retrieve the product they paid for."
These are technical skills and responsibilities I learned working alongside my programming partner. I still can't program anything functional on my own though. I have experiences relating to programming, but I still do not know how to code. Does this surprise you?
I don't think I ever said you had a limited potential. In fact, you have a lot of potential. My point is that it takes a long time to realize most of it and get to the point where you can write good, useful software (realize in the sense of, "to make real").
The reason I outlined the complexities and difficulties of building software is because you asked why byoung2 said that you'd probably never build something useful. The reason is that most likely you'll give up before long. If you stick with it though, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever that you can't be a great programmer.
I've never taken a formal class in programming. I am proud of what I know and so I do have an ego when it comes to programming. But I am also being honest with you. It's a long road to becoming a good programmer. It might be easier and it might be expedited by the fact that you're older, but it still takes a long time (which can be frustrating!). As I said, good luck!
It's not because you're a business guy that you'll probably never build anything useful, but because you haven't invested the time most programmers-of-useful-software have. Programming skill is mainly a function of time with an intelligence multiplier. The number of things within the world of programming that you don't know you don't know, is staggering. And you need to know a large amount of inter-related pieces of knowledge to build anything useful.
As an example, I recently built a 'web application' which will send a student an email when a college course that they want opens up at Virginia Tech (http://hokienotify.me). I haven't worked on it in a while, but it took me about three days to write from conception to what you see now.
Let me list the technologies/bodies of knowledge that are involved in this relatively simple application.
It only took me three days to write, but in reality, it took me 10 years.To reiterate, it's not because you're a business guy, but because it's a long journey from "Javascript is like Java but simpler" to a real, useful piece of software.
Edit: I hope I'm not being discouraging. Programming is fun, and you should definitely continue with it. As you work at it, you get better. Good luck!