Doctor: You seem to be in good health, what again did you say you need me to do?
BizBrah: Well, I'd like to be several inches taller, and have four arms.
Doctor: I don't really, uh, do that sort of thing, if it were even possible.
BizBrah: Listen, this is a one in a million idea, I just need someone to implement it. I'm the idea guy, you're the doctor.
Doctor: It's not impossible per se, but none of my colleagues would actually attempt such things on a human subject. Perhaps you should read up a bit about the current state of medical science, and maybe become a doctor if body modification research is your calling.
BizBrah: I looked at what's available at the pharmacy, but it's all too hard to understand. I love tall people. I love the dynamic nature of juggling many things at once. Am I forever cursed to be uninvolved in the medical community because doctors keep shooting down my ideas?
Doctor: ...
BizBrah glares demandingly.
Doctor: Actually, I can help you out! The kind of doctor you're looking for is called a psychiatrist. I know a good one, here's his card.
BizBrah: Bingo! I'm a people person, persuasion is my strength.
Having been on the dev side of the conversation with many (mostly MBA students), I can agree with you here. However, this is only one suits v. nerds issue.
Often, I can see that the idea will be large-impact, but the job itself is boring. Sometimes, it's even a simple CRUD app you could Build in a Weekend* but hmm... what I'm doing now is quite exciting so.. "I'll pass. Btw, if you learn Rails, you could build it in a week or two yourself".I can see why this gets people angry. But it's the way demand-driven markets work.
The other side to the coin is that if you knew a little about programming, you could make your project (at least sound) a lot more interesting. (It's a CRUD app, but it needs to be always consistent, and we're trying to offer a zero-downtime service with queues for when the data store goes down, yada yada).
The problem there is the fundamental misalignment between a boring CRUD project and a technical founder. If the project isn't technically challenging, then the success of the business doesn't even depend on the technical skills, so equity isn't an appropriate incentive for the technical contributor. What they really need is a contract/salary programmer, but are attempting to sell it as "you'll get rich with equity" to avoid paying up front. In essence, they're attempting to raise seed funding from a naive engineer.
This is a flawed comparison because you do not need to "become a doctor" or read up on medical science to know that there is currently no way to get another pair of functioning human arms on top of the two you already have.
By the way, there are surgical options to grow taller by lengthening the limbs [1]. I'm not a doctor.
The comparison is spot on. You do not need to "become a developer" in order to understand what is within the realm of possibility for developers to do.
And a BizBrah who was somewhat versed in the medical vocabulary would have the ability to research a problem the dotor says is not possible, provide a link to an implemented solution, and the whole project benefits.
The medically educated patient knows just enough to challenge the patient rather than blindly asking for the imposisble
BizBrah: Well, I'd like to be several inches taller, and have four arms.
Doctor: I don't really, uh, do that sort of thing, if it were even possible.
BizBrah: Listen, this is a one in a million idea, I just need someone to implement it. I'm the idea guy, you're the doctor.
Doctor: It's not impossible per se, but none of my colleagues would actually attempt such things on a human subject. Perhaps you should read up a bit about the current state of medical science, and maybe become a doctor if body modification research is your calling.
BizBrah: I looked at what's available at the pharmacy, but it's all too hard to understand. I love tall people. I love the dynamic nature of juggling many things at once. Am I forever cursed to be uninvolved in the medical community because doctors keep shooting down my ideas?
Doctor: ...
BizBrah glares demandingly.
Doctor: Actually, I can help you out! The kind of doctor you're looking for is called a psychiatrist. I know a good one, here's his card.
BizBrah: Bingo! I'm a people person, persuasion is my strength.