

Ask HN: Business and programming? - malte

Hello everyone, I would like to have your advice on an issue which is bothering me for a while right now. I know there are already some "how to learn to program" threads on HN but I feel like they are not helping with my decision. I'm a 25 years old business student from Germany and I will graduate this year. I already have an MBA degree from an American university. However, my big passion is the Internet and Internet startups. I'm also the co-founder (&#60;10%) of a startup in Germany where I'm responsible for business development. I'm really enjoying what I'm doing and I'm planning to start my own Internet startup after I graduate. However, I'm not happy with my lack of skills in coding/web development.<p>Sure, there is always the possibility of hiring programmers or getting a programmer as a co-founder for a startup, but I would really prefer to be able to test my ideas myself and not just to be the "business guy" who's crunching the numbers. However, I know that it's a long road to learn coding and I've already made the decision in life to be a business guy. Usually my attitude is that it's never too late to learn something, but I'm not sure whether learning to program is the right choice for me. It would take years before I would be a decent coder and somehow I feel like doubting the path I've chosen (--&#62; business).<p>I would really like to have your opinion on this. Should I just focus on business or should I just do it and learn to program?<p>Thanks,
Malte<p>P.S.: Even though I've studied in the United States, my English is far from being perfect. So please ignore typos etc if possible. ;)
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pj
The two are not mutually exclusive. You can do business while learning
programming. Programming /will/ help you in business because with programming
you can find answers easier.

The first thing I would do if I were you and I know what I know now, I would
investigate Platforms as a Service. These services allow you to get up and
running with a database driven application very quickly and they reduce the
amount of "stuff" you have to learn to build systems. Your goal as a business
person is not to be the person everyone goes to to get code done, but they'll
come to you for answers in the form of reports, charts, and analysis. Today,
you can get very far in that direction without programming. My opinion is that
web based Platforms as a Service (PaaS) are the future of systems development.
Many will disagree.

Lots of people will also disagree with me when I say this, but I would suggest
if you _are_ going to learn programming, start with SQL. It's not /that/
difficult, but it is very very powerful. What you want to do as a business
person is get complex answers out of a database of numbers. If you sit at the
top of a company, you want to be able to drill into any piece of data, any
aggregate you want and get the answer you need. These are the kinds of answers
you will find yourself relying on a computer guy to get for you.

Why do I say SQL? Because nearly every system you will ever use will use SQL.
It'll use SQL to create, read, update, and delete data in those massive
databases you use. Even if the SQL isn't exposed, you can use SQL to mine your
own datasets outside applications. Export them, then import them into your
personal database and go to town. You'll be amazed at the answers you can dig
out with SQL that you can't get any other way.

The first thing you will have to do is install a database server, which you'll
need for nearly any kind of business programming anyway. Go with Microsoft SQL
Server Express, or MySQL. It depends on your work environment and what most
people around you know. Use whatever most people around you use. You can
choose something else later.

Now, once you learn SQL, you will naturally want to display the results you
find on a web page. At that point, you'll learn JavaScript and HTML, plus a
connector language like .NET, PHP, or Java (unless you go with a Platform as a
Service).

If you want to skip SQL, I say learn JavaScript. It's very powerful and used
in the browser, so nearly every website uses it. There are tons of tutorials
and examples on the web. You can use it on the Pre. It's nearly ubiquitous
anymore and all you need to get started is a text editor and a web browser.
Most other languages require a lot of setup, installation, and configuration
of development environments.

That's my $0.02. Ask programmers you know in the real world. They'll be
invaluable when you run into problems installing the database, connecting it
up and getting something working at all. Once you have that, the sky is the
limit.

P.S. Your english is totally fine.

~~~
malte
Wow, thanks for taking the time for such a comprehensive response/advice. I
appreciate. Actually I talked to a few programmers already and no one ever has
given me the advice to start with SQL. However, it seems reasonable to me.

~~~
pj
A lot of people don't consider SQL programming. Usually we think of more
traditional programming languages, but SQL is at the root of most information
systems. A lot of programmers don't know SQL, it can be difficult -- it is
difficult.

But I believe it to be the most powerful programming concept you can learn,
simply due to the answers it can help you find.

~~~
hs
you can make sql-like data management using programming languages (see
practical common lisp ch 3); however, you can't use sql alone to accomplish
what languages can

sql is very limiting ... to me, that's enough to justify not investing more
time in sql

