
Tell HN: Hello - wwwarsame
Hello All,<p>My name is Mohamed, and I am a jail guard!<p>After a year or so reading HN, I finally made an account! This place is overwhelmingly full of smart people, and I sometimes feel out of place! I have learned a great deal from all of you. With this said, I am embarking on a two year journey to apply to YC in FALL of 2017. I have given myself this arbitrary timeline to motivate myself.<p>You see, I am a total noob. I&#x27;m about to enroll in an online coding bootcamp. This is to grasp enough CS&#x2F;coding experience so I can graduate from the proverbial &#x27;I&#x27;m looking for a technical co-founder&#x27; dilemma, and to build the MVP on my own. What I become, for better or worse, is how I will attract the right people to tell my story and grow a company together. In the meantime, I am working on myself first and learning each day from all of you. I am excited to begin this marathon I call starting a startup.
======
technofiend
Mohamed let me tell you about my little sister. She was the opposite of me in
that she hated school. Truly hated it. She said she'd never set foot in school
again after graduating high school.

But, she wanted to be a police officer, and that required college. So she put
herself through school by being a prison guard. My little 5'3" sister running
around bossing grown men like it was nothing.

She made it through school and got hired as a police officer. She spent the
next five years as a dispatcher. Nobody wanted to put her on the streets. But
she persevered and eventually she won the day and became a patrol officer. I
dare say except for getting married it was the happiest day of her life.

Don't let anything stop you, man. Smart isn't everything: perseverance counts
for a great deal.

~~~
sktrdie
Great story expect the last part. Where you're sort of implying that all smart
people are coders and others that do other types of jobs aren't.

I met _a lot_ of people that were _a lot_ smarter than most "startup
developers" and it didn't require them to sit in front of a computer most of
the day.

~~~
jmspring
I read it as, one can be smart, but the drive and perseverance to pursue your
dreams and desires are really a major key to achieving one's goals.

~~~
bkeroack
_The_ major key. Hard work and perseverance can make up for just about any
deficit in natural ability, but it doesn't work the other way around.

~~~
scarmig
Eh, this'll end up being a metaphysical debate, but I think that's much too
strong.

If someone is of average or higher natural ability, yes, hard work and
perseverance will be the biggest determinant of outcome. But someone who's
genuinely pretty dumb, wholly socially incompetent, or exceptionally disabled
or ill will have massive difficulties being successful regardless of their
perseverance.

Which isn't to say that hard work is useless to the people on the lower end of
the spectrum: far from it, a stupid hard-worker not only can find themselves
with a decent enough job but will usually be able to keep it. It's just they
lack the ability to set themselves up for good opportunities like that and to
limit downside risk from one-off events. Luck of the draw will end up
dominating outcomes.

(Obviously, most people who comment on internet forums, particularly a
specialized forum like HN, are not only likely to be average or above but also
to have extremely limited contact with people significantly below the mean, so
if you're reading this, your life outcomes probably are determined by your own
work ethic. On that note, cheers to a productive Sunday!)

------
bootload
_" My name is Mohamed, and I am a jail guard!"_

G'day, Mohamed don't make the mistake of defining yourself by your job. You
are much, much more than that. You work (and survive) in a Jail? That now
makes you 10x better than most nerds on HN in understanding and handling
people. Scan HN and the general press and you can see how badly Startups and
their users are hurt by this and you'll realise this is a desirable skill.
Start from there.

~~~
akerl_
~"Don't make the mistake of defining yourself by your job, just know that your
job makes you better than these other people with a different job"

~~~
y4mi
> ~"Don't make the mistake of defining yourself by your job, just know that
> your job makes you better

>> in understanding and handling people

> than these other people with a different job"

you can't ignore the middle, as that is the defining part of his sentence.
every sentence is hypocrisy if you remove important parts

~~~
rickhanlonii
> ~"You can't ignore the middle, every sentence is hypocrisy."

------
Jugurtha
Welcome, Mohamed..

A little word of advice that I hope will save you a lot of time and
frustration:

\- Don't wait to complete your training to _start_ your project. Start with
the knowledge you have and tweak it over time. If you have no knowledge right
now, start by sketching in English. It seems stupid but just the fact of
abstracting human needs that seem obvious to us and formalizing them into
logical steps will help you tremendously.

\- Write code about random stuff you think about. It will be ugly and you'll
laugh at it, but you will be lightyears ahead than if you wait when you
_finish_ your training to _start_ writing code. It doesn't need to be great,
awesomely useful or something.

\- Compare yourself with yourself. "..wrote 3,000 lines of Python in a day to
build a Segway" made me hate myself. Fight that urge. I know I still am.
Reading biographies of great people, seeing what people are actually doing and
building makes me feel miserable, incompetent and good at nothing.

\- Understand that the points above are for you just in part, they are mainly
for myself :)

Here's something to make you feel less inadequate:

[http://carlcheo.com/fascinating-posts-from-tech-founders-
who...](http://carlcheo.com/fascinating-posts-from-tech-founders-who-changed-
the-world)

Work to get better. When the itch presents itself, you'll have the skills to
scratch it.

Good luck.

~~~
felixrabe
> Reading biographies of great people, seeing what people are actually doing
> and building makes me feel miserable, incompetent and good at nothing.

Wow, that's something I totally have as well. At the same time, I _want_ to be
(and am, many times) inspired by other people who are already more successful
than me. After all, they did struggle, maybe with other things, but their
success proves that it is possible to reach it / to achieve something awesome.

The struggle with a feeling of worthlessness is such a mystery. Why do I have
it? Why so many people in general? What is the cause, what can be done? I try
many things, fall flat on my nose, and then try to get up again. Sometimes,
it's a hellish nightmare.

------
downandout
Before you do this, consider the following question: would you rather spend
your time learning to build the Uber app, or learning the skills to build
_Uber_ (the company)? Those are two truly different skill sets, and the latter
is far more rare and valuable. The ability to raise money, build teams for a
variety of functions, budget, and execute on an audacious vision is far
outside the realm of most software engineers.

Unless coding is truly your passion, hire someone or find a technical co-
founder. Spend your time learning how to plan and build stable, scalable
businesses and teams. Your goal should be to build an organization that can
employ all of the software engineers necessary to carry out the vision for
your business - not to be able to write all of the code yourself.

~~~
Mahn
In my opinion, learning the skills to build "Uber the company" will get you
nowhere without a compelling product first, whereas if you have a compelling
product you can be a complete idiot when it comes to business and still have a
chance to learn and make something out of it.

By all means don't focus solely on development if your goal is to build a
startup, and in particular be aware you need to attract users once you launch;
but don't focus on learning the intricacies of raising money or leading a team
without a product either.

~~~
downandout
If you have business skills, you can always find/team up with people that have
a compelling product, or team up with others others to bring _your_ compelling
product to life through code while you build the business. In this case, it
appears that OP has an idea and wants to build the product himself, starting
from scratch with no coding knowledge. I am saying that he should team up with
someone to accomplish the actual coding, and he should focus on the business.

BTW, I am saying all of this as a fairly accomplished software engineer that
has grown to understand that business skills are far more important than the
programming skills I have spent nearly 20 years working on. I find myself
agreeing more and more with this statement from Chris Sacca, who is a
billionaire that knows a thing or two about successful tech startups [1]:

 _"...most of the value is created by the execution, not the idea itself."_

[1]
[http://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/](http://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/)

------
Alex3917
That timeline would be doable, but Spring 2019 wouldn't be bad to shoot for
either. Here is an alternate 3.5 year plan:

\- Year 1: Learn to code full time. Later in the year, start applying for jobs
as a developer.

\- Year 2: Get a job as a full stack dev. Devote nights and weekends to
improving your development skills as much as possible.

\- Year 3: Get a cofounder, and work nights and weekends on your project.

\- Year 4: Go full time, and work for 6 months to launch the product and get
enough traction to do YC.

The problem is that if you don't spend any time actually working as a
developer, you'll be limited to only doing very simple projects. And also,
it's much more likely to work if you can find a cofounder and work with them
part time for a while before going full time.

As someone else already said, you'll also need the skills required to create a
good product and build a good company, both of which are entirely different.

~~~
wwwarsame
Thank you Alex. This is very good. Two years may not be enough as I am
starting from scratch, so I may just consider this.

------
radmuzom
All the best. My advice to you would be to try and think how you can provide
real value to people (which rules out 90% of "startups" in Silicon Valley) and
make a positive change in their lives.

This does not mean you have to solve world hunger, it can be as simple as
having identified a loophole which allows for corruption in jails and you use
technology to close that loophole.

~~~
thekid314
Or fix that exploitative phone call system in jails.

~~~
wwwarsame
Also the canteen they order, way overpriced. There are numerous inefficiencies
in the prison system, and Pigeonly seems like they picked one area, phones, to
attack first.

~~~
ectoplasm
Maybe there's some area for profit involving all the inmates doing useful desk
jobs.

------
peterjancelis
I hope your MVP will be catering to prison guard or prison management. You
probably got some unique insights there that few developers have.

~~~
Kluny
Not to mention the prison industry is overdue for some serious upsets.

------
primitivesuave
Hey Mohamed! I'm really glad you're making a startup. When I started my first
startup, I had no idea how to make "mywebsite.com" link up to my actual
website - the whole process was a mystery to me. It was like wandering around
in a dark room and bumping into the furniture and walls.

I got the business started with just a simple Bootstrap template and PHP form,
and it worked great! After around 6 months of learning new things every day
through the Internet, chat rooms, etc, all in an effort to improve the
website, I felt like one of those days I just found the light switch, and the
whole room was illuminated.

Nowadays I can work on my own schedule on coding projects that I truly enjoy
doing. Two years ago, I didn't even know what I was capable of building. There
were certainly those days where it all feels a bit overwhelming, but like
another great commenter pointed out here, perseverance is key.

~~~
wwwarsame
Thank you for the encouraging words.

------
jnbiche
Good luck with your endeavors! Regarding learning to code, I'll just reiterate
what others have said that Python is an excellent language to learn with (that
said, it's not ideal for everything, but it is a great learner's language).

Also, if you haven't already, I'd suggest switching to Linux or OSX and get
used to working on the command line. Most developers in the start-up scene
will be working on OSX or Linux, and learning how to use the command line will
benefit you enormously.

------
greens231
Hey Mohamed, My name is Kabir Narain. I started programming in Jan 2014 and
recently launched my first app (www.almostfamous.club). Start by making simple
websites or apps for the phone that you use. Its daunting at first but in
around one year you should be feeling pretty confident of yourself. My email
is 1119231@gmail.com Mail me if you need any assistance. Good luck!

PS- i did not go to college or attend any programming courses so believe me,
you CAN do it! (i was training as a sea navigator on board merchant ships
before that)

------
Rogerh91
Welcome Mohamed.

"This place is overwhelmingly full of smart people, and I sometimes feel out
of place!"

Don't feel out of place. You may just be suffering from Dunning-Kruger effect.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)

The smartest people for me are those who can drop all pretensions and learn as
much as they can. You're well on your way.

~~~
makeset
The Dunning-Kruger effect is grossly overestimating one's own skill. I think
that's the opposite of what you meant.

~~~
girvo
They probably meant Impostor syndrome[0] instead.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome)

~~~
daragh99
I have thought about and battled with impostor syndrome a LOT! So much so that
I wrote this incredibly long article about it. I hope it's useful.

[http://www.geekmindfitness.com/mindfulness/how-
mindfulness-m...](http://www.geekmindfitness.com/mindfulness/how-mindfulness-
meditation-stopped-me-feeling-like-a-fake/)

------
trentmb
> This place is overwhelmingly full of smart people, and I sometimes feel out
> of place!

You and I both- I commend you on your humility and look forward to your
success.

------
daSn0wie
Intelligence doesn't matter as much as you think:

[http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html)

Comparing yourself to others is always a losing game. Compare yourself to
where you were when you started this journey, and you'll see that you've come
pretty far.

Get ready for the rollercoaster (emotionally) ride, and good luck!

~~~
tete
Sadly money appears to matter though:

[http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-
gene-...](http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene-for-
risk-they-come-from-families-with-money/)

However, doesn't mean you can't simply ignore that and just go for it.

------
hliyan
You've given yourself two years -- that's good, realistic. May I ask what
level of knowledge skill in what areas you're aiming for by fall of 2017, and
how much time you plan to devote per, say week, for the exercise?

Also, good luck. If you need to be pointed in the right direction, I'm sure a
lot of people here (including myself) would be happy to do so during this
period.

------
sureshn
I urge you to read this article before you decide to take the entrepreneurial
plunge [http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-
gene-...](http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene-for-
risk-they-come-from-families-with-money/?utm_source=parCM)

~~~
wwwarsame
This is very interesting. I don't have the pedigree mentioned in the article
that, according to the article, leads one to Startup success. So, should I
just give up or keep going?

~~~
weston
Just read your own quote earlier in this thread:

"By learning to code, my desire is to get to a stage where: a. I can converse
with tech people who have been at this their whole live, b. gain the
proficiency to build the mvp, c. become a team member with attributable skill
set when company is formed, etc. Hiring someone is inevitable down the line,
but I need to create the map for him/her to paint first."

Ignore that asinine article. Don't judge your success based on whether you
started a startup or not. Base it on what you wrote above: Learning to code,
having technical conversations, and being a better person than you ever
thought possible.

------
dr_hercules
How about working as an employed programmer first - learn from colleagues -
and then after three years reconsider founding a company.

I mean sorry, but if you worked so far as a jail guard then you probably don't
have enough experience for you ambitious dreams yet.

Honestly though ... this text seems so generical and naive that I have trouble
believing its authenticity ...

~~~
joesmo
I don't think the experience is necessary. He wants to found a company not be
an excellent engineer. That means as long as he can get a prototype out, it
doesn't matter if it's all spaghetti code. It's startup code and it will be
shitty. He can then hopefully raise money and hire people with at least a few
years experience to build things out properly (hopefully).

I've seen successful startups started by people who could barely code or
taught themselves to code to build the business just like the OP is
describing. Sure, the code is shitty and there's no architecture, but once
you're making money, who cares? This explains the shitty code found at most
startups, but if it's temporary and a way to get somewhere, I definitely see
its benefits. If this was a proper system, meant to live on for years, that's
different. Hopefully the OP will have enough wisdom to realize when it's time
to switch between the two mindsets. Most startup CEOs don't (even if they
started out like the OP because they quickly get disconnected from
engineering), and that's the real problem, IMO, but by then you've already
started a company and raised money.

~~~
dr_hercules
he worked in a prison you funny person ... what qualifies him to found tech
company? right - nothing!

and spaghetti code that turns useful requires even more experience to
maintain.

~~~
freyr
> _what qualifies him to found tech company?_

What qualifies a programmer (even a good programmer) to found a tech company?
Starting any company requires so many more skills than just programming
knowledge, it becomes very unlikely that a random programmer is qualified. In
fact, many programmers I know are the _least_ qualified people I can think of
to found a company -- they lack the ability or desire to sell an idea, manage
a team, or motivate people. If you think "I'm a good programmer, and that
makes me qualified to run a company," you'll be disabused you of that notion
very quickly. It may turn out that you have the qualifications, but it won't
have anything to do with your coding ability.

The truth is, there are _many_ boxes you need to check, and technical
knowledge is just one of them. It's very rare that a single individual can
check all those boxes. That's why VCs generally prefer companies founded by
multiple people with complementary skill sets.

That's also why the OP should seriously consider finding a technical co-
founder. He may be qualified to found a tech company (perhaps he can manage
people, sell an idea, or use his prior experience to enter an underserved
market), but it's unlikely he's qualified to found a tech company _alone_.

------
geektips
Hi Mohamed , all of the people here given you great advice on the language to
learn and tools to use. I think this will be helpful for you
[https://github.com/ripienaar/free-for-dev](https://github.com/ripienaar/free-
for-dev)

~~~
wwwarsame
Amazing. I've added this to my collection of web dev favourites. Thank you.

------
zongitsrinzler
Hey Mohamed.

I am interested in how someone who is not an engineer/investor/etc even came
to hear about Hacker News?

~~~
wwwarsame
This is not in any way meant to sound snarky, but I don't live under a rock.
Hacker News will come to you or you will go to it when you question the
trajectory of your life.

~~~
aws_ls
Your reply reminded me of the Mohammed/Mountain quote[1] :-)

All the best to you.

[1] "If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to..."

~~~
wwwarsame
Nice. I didn't know about this quote.

------
maxschumacher91
Dear Mohamed,

do you think you'll be able to use your specific insight into the prison
system as a basis for your idea? I bet there are many problems waiting to be
solved.

Prisons are big money, especially in the US.

Greetings and all the best for your journey to YC

~~~
happyscrappy
He is already profiting from the US prison system. Also I would not recommend
tangling with prison guard unions for his first project, tackle something
unrelated and revisit it when more experienced.

~~~
maxschumacher91
Profiting from the system by being employed there? That's not what I had in
mind.

There are many opportunities outside of prison guard unions for innovation
regarding the overall institution/process of incarceration in America.

Domain expertise will only be built by tackling a problem in that domain. How
could one possibly decide against pursuing a topic without trying it at all?

Tough, seemingly entrenched markets often prove to be the most interesting:
SpaceX, Uber etc

------
atroyn
Hi Mohamed

Your goals are admirable, and I think you're on the right path. Do you have
some product or company idea in mind already?

The one piece of advice I'd like to give you is, there's no need to rush.
There will be plenty more YC intakes, and you'll have tons of good ideas -
learning to execute on them by trying a bunch of different stuff is the best
way to get there, and to do that you need to give yourself time to learn.

~~~
wwwarsame
Hi atroyn,

Thank for your feedback. I have two ideas in mind. One is about a process I
would like to streamline using technology at my current job, and the other one
deals with ESL and learning a new language. Many of the ESL or learn a
language methods out there are so boring, and I think I have a way to make it
less boring and actually learn something. I had this problem when I wanted to
learn French. You can sit there and repeat all the French words until the cows
come home, but it will be no use to you when you want to converse in real life
situations. The idea is about learning a new language in a way that is
engaging, not learning from a CD and tucked away in your bedroom.

------
zalzane
> This place is overwhelmingly full of smart people, and I sometimes feel out
> of place!

Rule 1: Don't confuse intelligence with experience.

Technological and critical thinking skills can be learned by everyone given
enough time and effort. A lot of people dismiss any possibility of becoming
technically minded by saying "only smart people can do that", even though they
have the potential to gain the same skills.

------
wwwarsame
Mohamed here....

Wow. Seriously? I wrote this after coming back from work, and went off to
sleep (it was around 2AM). I don't know what to say, but thank you to all for
taking the time to respond and upvoting this thread. I have never expected
this to happen. I will respond to each commentor who specifically asked a
direct question as time allows, but for now, I will jot down more about me and
why I have the career that I have.

To start, I earned my BSc in Public Health and Safety. After few years in the
field, I became disgruntled with my career choice and felt miserable going to
work each day. I felt trapped in a rat race full of fake smiles. I had to
decide that I will either do this for 30 or so years and retire, or just
leave. Well, the decision was made for me and I was fired...ahahah. I wish
they could also fire my student debt. The annoyance I felt working in such
environment where I was not being challenged enough and not learning much was
oozing from every pore on my body, and managers could smell it.

Fast forward, I went off to Africa for vacation and the basic life necessities
we enjoy every day such as clean water, electricity and food safety were non-
existent. Everything in many parts of Africa are run by NGO's. There were
rules that prohibit people from planting their own food! The NGO's want to
supply you the food from their end. Being self sufficient is not part of the
game for these NGO's. Anyways, I could go on forever about the dire situations
in Africa and the corruption from within the nation and from outside agencies,
but it will be too long for one post.

Fast forward some more, and I came back home. No job. No savings. My cousin
told me to apply for a corrections job. I got it. And guess what? I love it. I
use my natural verbal judo skills and empathy to get the job done. It is
scary, but ultimately, you either get yourself in hot water or stay out of the
hot water as a jail guard. I chose the latter. Long story short, I really
enjoy my job and there are multiple ideas and what if's I come up with when I
am there. I was always around entrepreneurs. The best entrepreneur I know of
personally is my mother. I learned from her the idea that create something
people want. In her case, it was order what people want. I always wondered why
my mother would order only ladies clothing and jewelry and perfume for women
only. Why not men? Because my mother understood these women and their inherent
need to change clothes all the time, and she satisfied this by purchasing
everything they needed as a wholesale from Middle East. She never bought even
once what men want. She stuck to her believe and made a lot of money doing it
by satisfying her core customers: housewives. I think we can all learn from
people in our lives that made a silent contribution to push you to
entrepreneurship, and for me, it was my mother.

I have declared this little blurb last night because I can't stand being the
idea guy anymore. I have countless ideas, but I understand the need to learn
and become a sufficient partner when I do find a co-founder. The idea I will
work on with the online coding bootcamp is from my workplace. I would like to
streamline something so redundant that I do every day using technology. There
are multiple things I could work on, but I have to start from somewhere first.
Off to work for now, again, I will respond to direct questions from certain
commentors. Again, thank you.

------
nailer
Awesome Mohamed! Start small, and use the free resources - try the Learn the
Hard Way series. Python is a great language to start with, JavaScript is a
little more difficult but you can do more things. Attend meetups too, they'll
inspire you and it's nice to be able to speak to people in real life about
this stuff.

~~~
wwwarsame
Thank you sir. I have recently downloaded the online version of Zed Shaw's
Learn Python the Hard Way ebook with accompanying lessons. Taking this along
with Udacity's Intro to Comp Science course which uses Python. Basic JS under
my belt from team treehouse and udemy course.

------
amirouche
_I 'd like to say_ that everything about coding is not startup. There is a
life for code outside startups.

------
ramykhuffash
This is an awesome post & I'm excited to see the support from HN.

I like how you're giving yourself a solid goal and plenty of time to achieve
it.

Quick question - you mention that you'd like to build an MVP yourself, do you
know what product you'd like to build or what market you're interested in
serving?

~~~
wwwarsame
Hi ramykhuffash,

I've just started learning the core web dev fundamentals - HTML, CSS,
JAVASCRIPT. I am also taking a Ruby course on Udemy, and as mentioned,
starting The Firehose Project in September. Two ideas so far: a. idea from my
job (jail) b. ESL idea I always had even before starting the career as a jail
guard.

Things change so fast, so I will see what happens when one of these ideas
makes contact with customers.

------
kaa2102
Congratulations! The journey is long and challenging but totally worth it.
Approach the startup world with the intellectual curiosity of a visitor in a
foreign country. There are some great ways to learn how to code. Instead, I've
found it beneficial to Learn How to Do X to Accomplish Y. There are numerous
programming languages, APIs, platforms, devices, technologies, methodologies,
etc. Focus on the X that helps you do Y. Udacity, Khan Academy, Coursera, and
W3Schools.com offer a great start (some are free) for programming. A good
start is learning front end development: HTML, Bootsrap. CSS, Javascript.

Find some like-minded individuals. You can join tech meetups, Google Developer
groups, etc. Good luck on your journey my friend! Keep building!

------
richardboegli
MS Access - Learn it first!

Why?

The first few reasons that come to mind:

1) To quote a friend of mine, “If a 50 year old boilermaker can work it out,
then anyone can.”

2) MS Access will more than likely be installed on your computer at work.

3) Almost all "startup" type programs will need databasing of some sort.

4) It has macros and modules (VBA - Visual Basic for Applications)

5) As you start to learn Visual Basic for Application you can use this to
potentially automate things at work as it available across Word and Excel.

Read these to get started:

Database basics [1]

This article provides a brief overview of databases -- what they are, why you
might want to use one, and what the different parts of a database do.

Database design basics [2]

A properly designed database provides you with access to up-to-date, accurate
information.

Learn the structure of an Access database [3]

Becoming familiar with the tables, forms, queries, and other objects in a
database can make it easier to perform a wide variety of tasks, such as
entering data into a form, adding or removing tables, finding and replacing
data, and running queries.

[1] [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Database-
basics-2C5...](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Database-
basics-2C57449A-4232-44BD-B090-EF01058ED1F1)

[2] [https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Database-design-
bas...](https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Database-design-basics-
eb2159cf-1e30-401a-8084-bd4f9c9ca1f5)

[3] [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Learn-the-
structure...](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Learn-the-structure-of-
an-Access-database-6A95097A-F95C-45BF-BE9B-A3F8D7D61C1D)

~~~
halflings
This is... some pretty weird advice. Learn MS Access first? Really?

First, it's just a database system coupled with macros. That's not the most
important thing you'll want to learn if you want to build a startup. The
frontend and/or backend logic are the most interesting, not "macros" to run on
your database.

Then, VBA is pretty horrible for a beginner and he's probably going to want to
deploy his service at some point (and MS solutions are not exactly the easiest
to deploy for a beginner)

~~~
richardboegli
> This is... some pretty weird advice. Learn MS Access first? Really?

Yes, really.

He needs to learn the fundamentals. Read my post again and see the points I
made.

> Then, VBA is pretty horrible for a beginner and he's probably going to want
> to deploy his service at some point (and MS solutions are not exactly the
> easiest to deploy for a beginner)

I've was able to deploy an MS Access database on Sharepoint in about 5
minutes.

------
EGreg
Mohamed - I would recommend learning about basic software engineering
practices but NOT building your own app. It takes years to become good enough
to do that successfully. Instead, learn how to hire and manage developers,
especially overseas developers on upwork.com (formerly odesk), how to share
equity (read Slicing Pie book) and most of all how to design the user
experience, and market yourself to investors (create an online portal for
investors that works on mobile and desktop browsers.) Use invisionapp or
something similar to show your app to others, and iterate THAT. Your first
customers are actually investors and developers!

~~~
wwwarsame
Thank you. This is good. I will definitely take this into consideration.

------
naveensky
Hi Mohamed, Good luck for your journey. It would be really exciting to know
more about your journey, I hope you will have time to maintain blog or post
more here :)

Again, if you need any tech help, feel free to ping me at @naveensky (twitter)
or email in my profile :)

ATB

~~~
wwwarsame
Thank you. I will tackle setting up a blog and writing my first blog post
sometime this week. Thank you for the offer. I will be in touch.

------
radcam
From Mohamed to Mohamed, i own my iOS app and i can help you with anything
iOS. i teach iOS and Swift to non-programmers and CS graduates. I'm not in the
U.S. but if you ever need anything hit me up on Twitter @moubarak

------
Stratoscope
Wow, Mohamed, this is great. I'm glad I stayed up late enough tonight to see
your post. Please feel free to give me a shout via the email address in my
profile - I'd be more than happy to kick around any ideas to help you get
started.

What kind of computer do you use - Windows, Mac, Linux? I'd like to give you
some suggestions for programming tools (mostly free, some you might pay for),
but of course the details will depend on which OS you're using.

I second nailer's suggestion that you may want to start with Python for some
of your initial learning. It's an easy language to get started with, but also
very powerful. Even if you end up using another language later on, your Python
skills will remain valuable - it's great for writing anything from little
scripts up to large apps.

Ruby is also really nice, you wouldn't go wrong with that either. And of
course you'll want to learn JavaScript eventually too, regardless of what else
you do. You could start with any of these really, but Python is probably the
easiest to begin with. What you really want to start out doing is to get the
basic _concepts_ of programming down - and these carry over from language to
language.

One suggestion I'll make right away: in every language you work with, find and
learn how to use a good debugger. For JavaScript, every browser has a nice
built-in debugger. (I like the one in Chrome, but they are all pretty good.)
For Python or Ruby it will depend to some degree on which OS you use.

And a good IDE with built-in syntax checking, autocomplete, and all that is
really great to have.

Some people will tell you not to use IDEs and debuggers and things like that,
as if it were a sign of weakness to use good tools. Or that if you follow Test
Driven Development you should never need to use a debugger. Don't listen to
them!

I see so many people asking questions on Stack Overflow that they could have
answered for themselves in a few minutes if they only knew how to _debug_
their code. Testing is important and you should learn all about it and do it,
but debuggers are for more than just fixing bugs. They help you explore and
learn how your code works, and what the APIs you're calling really do, in an
interactive and visual way.

Here's a Stack Overflow post of mine from a couple of years ago with
screenshots of a few Python debuggers:

[http://stackoverflow.com/a/16474706/1202830](http://stackoverflow.com/a/16474706/1202830)

Don't worry if there's a lot of stuff in those screens; it will all make sense
as you get into it.

You'll also want to get into version control sooner rather than later. Most
people use Git these days, although Mercurial is very good too. I recommend
avoiding the Git command line though, at least at first. You have enough to
learn as it is without having to deal with that arcane system. But there are
some nice visual interfaces to Git. I like SmartGit a lot and recommend it.
It's free for noncommercial use. Or you may want to start with something even
simpler like one of the free clients from GitHub.

Again, let me know what OS you're on and I'll make some specific suggestions
for various kinds of tools.

p.s. Top of Hacker News on your first post! Not too shabby...

~~~
wwwarsame
I am glad to have witnessed someone like you who's so generous of their time,
and knowledge. Sir, thank you.

OS - Windows. Saving for a Macbook (too expensive). I am already on Udacity's
Intro to Computer Science and Python is used to teach this course. Plus going
through Learn Python the Hardway by Zed Shaw. Taking a Ruby course on Udemy.

IDE - I use Sublime Text for front-end development lessons (team treehouse,
udemy), and Cloud9 for the Ruby course I am taking through Udemy.

So much to learn! What is your email?

------
zitterbewegung
You have experience with Jails and guarding things? I would ask you to figure
out some type of problem that requires the protection of some type of asset.

------
SoftwarePatent
Welcome! With your background you might be interested in the YC startup
Pigeon.ly. Maybe you could apply to work/intern for them to gain experience.
[http://blog.ycombinator.com/pigeon-dot-ly-
yc-w15-a-startup-f...](http://blog.ycombinator.com/pigeon-dot-ly-
yc-w15-a-startup-focused-on-serving-the-us-prison-population-joins-y-
combinator)

------
wwwarsame
EDIT......

As suggested, here it is....

Blog at FAVORTEXT.com. I've used Wordpress to generate this blog. It looks
weird and things are out of place, but I will tackle this bit by bit as time
goes on. This is where I will jot down my journey on learning coding, business
development and going from an idea to an MVP prototype.

I wish everyone here who took the time to respond a glorious and wonderful
life.

------
trg2
I would take these two free classes: 1.)
[http://startupclass.samaltman.com/](http://startupclass.samaltman.com/) 2.)
[https://www.coursera.org/course/startup](https://www.coursera.org/course/startup)

~~~
wwwarsame
Hi trg2,

I am already taking No. 1, and will now add No. 2 to my favorites. Thank you.

------
Cblinks
Hey Mohamed!

I doing a coding challenge where I'm building 6 apps in 60 days. Take it one
day at a time. The smartest person in the a game isn't always the person who
ends up winning. The person who doesn't give up usually wins. You should check
out codeschool.com. They have great courses.

~~~
wwwarsame
Thank you. I'm on Team Treehouse at the moment for Web Dev track. I will check
out codeschool too.

------
felixrabe
Hello Mohamed. I'd be very interested to hear about your journey starting
today, whatever you end up doing, whether you persevere (what I hope) or not,
no matter.

Would you start a blog someplace and post a link here so we can be part of
your adventure?

------
brobinson
Do you already have a business idea or two floating around in your head? Just
curious.

------
zyngaro
I agree. HN is really unique in the web landscape. A lot of smart and nice
people here. It's a great community that inspired you to take that challenge
and that's amazing. Good luck.

------
vjdhama
Awesome man!! Your humility just inspires me. Ping me (@vjdhama) if you need
any kind of help with coding or any aspect of learning for that matter.

I'd be more than happy to lend out a hand.

~~~
masterminding
I might have to take you up on that offer myself. ;-)

------
arisAlexis
maybe your MVP will actually matter to lots of people and become useful for
humanity since you are working for this specific sector that innovation is
rare.

------
arianvanp
Awesome. If you ever wanna chat about coding or so. discuss geeky stuff. I'm
always idling on IRC (freenode) on the nickname `arianvp`.

~~~
cies
Always extending a helping hand :) Muhammed: arianvp serious chief geek, and a
very helpful/resourceful one!

------
sidcool
Good luck dude. I am sure you will rock. Independent of the outcome, your
journey is going to be glorious!!

~~~
wwwarsame
Dude!! You are an awesome human being!

~~~
sidcool
:)

------
onassar
Eid Mubarek Mohamed. Reach out if I can help with anything product/tech
related :)

~~~
wwwarsame
Eid Mubarek to you too. I am grateful for the offer and will reach out to you
when I get my thoughts together!

------
pknerd
Please create a blog and share your progress with outer world. It can help you
alot!

------
motyar
Join Github.com, show up, create something, dont tell; show.

------
Axsuul
Good luck Mohamed! There's nothing stopping you :)

~~~
wwwarsame
This is medicine. Right here. When a total stranger believes in your dreams!

------
darrellsilver
Hi Mohamed – what bootcamp are you joining?

~~~
wwwarsame
Hi Darrell,

I am joining The Firehose Project on Sept. 21st, 2015.

------
justmaintain
Become an entrepreneur instead. You work in a jail, possibilities for content
creation in such environments are endless.

------
ghufran_syed
My daughter and I were in the same position around 18 months ago. Neither of
us knew any coding, but we wanted to do a startup. I have an mba and another
professional degree and wanted to do a startup, so in theory, I could have
tried to find a tech cofounder, but in the end, felt I would be in a better
position if I learnt to code. As usual, paul graham says it better than I can,
"anyone reasonably smart can probably get to an edge of programming (e.g.
building mobile apps) in a year. Since a successful startup will consume at
least 3-5 years of your life, a year's preparation would be a reasonable
investment. Especially if you're also looking for a cofounder."

I would advise against the bootcamp (unless it's free?), you don't need one as
long as you have one or two buddies who code, who can advise you on what to
learn and help you when you get stuck, the response to your post suggests that
you will have a lot of people who would be willing to help! It might be a good
idea to put an email in your HN profile, make it easier for folks to get in
touch.

We started with python (udacity cs101), lisp/scheme using the free 'simply
scheme' book ( [https://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/ss-
toc2.html](https://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/ss-toc2.html) ) together with
learning some of the tools like unix command-line/vim/git, then a course on
web programming (udacity cs253), while she was doing college full-time, and I
was working full-time.

We then started learning rails and working almost full-time on the startup
around Oct 2014, and launched v1 of our web app in March 2015. Still working
on getting more customers :). Don't be in too much of a rush to leave what you
do now: I think it's definitely a good idea to have a 'day job' that pays the
bills, while you work on little projects that are interesting to you and help
you learn the various technologies, you may well find one of them turns into
something a lot bigger.

We also applied to yc (unsuccessfully), which may have been good for us: I
think the value of the advice they can give is high, but I now think it's kind
of a waste of the opportunity if you're not raising money at the end. We are
still figuring out 'what users want', and in hindsight, raising money would
have been both difficult to resist, and a terrible idea for us at that time.

Most of the advice yc gives is 'open source', for example, paul graham's
essays and books, jessica livingston's book, the yc startup school etc, so you
don't need to get into yc to learn what they have to say.

I now think that the best time to go through yc would be after you've
internalized what they teach, have made something users want, are growing, and
now need funding so you can grow even faster. I think YC fulfilled a different
role in the early days when it was so small, but is now so competitive, it's
best to think of it a bit like hiring an investment bank when looking to IPO.
In theory, they take a chunk of equity in exchange for good capital markets
advice that will get you a much better valuation: as far as investment banks
go, this is usually self-interested bullshit, but I think would be an accurate
description of the value of yc.

Best of luck, and get in touch by email, it would be good to chat!

~~~
ghufran_syed
And by a weird coincidence, this is announced the following day:
[http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-fellowship](http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-
fellowship)

~~~
wwwarsame
This is great. Doing YC remotely sounds like a good plan for founders with
children and a job that won't allow them to take time off.

------
dheavy
Good luck Mohamed. With your perseverance I'm _absolutely_ certain you'll make
it!

------
cekanoni
Fingers crossed for you man, have a fun learning this is nice motivation.

------
Alex999
All i can say is "Best of Luck"

------
sharavsambuu
Good luck man you can do it!

------
empressplay
Good for you! Best of luck.

------
maqbool
Good luck Mohamed.

------
ai_ja_nai
Good luck!

------
ragavans
Hellllloooo

------
12jason
Jail guard that must be interesting

------
owaislone
Good luck my friend!

------
MurWade
Hello. good luck. i will be watching you. haha

------
alouanchi
Good luck man, wish you all the best in this journey.

