The solution to a business problem is not “more code.”

I spend a lot of time reading what people are doing with regards to startups.  One of the continual issues I see is that people will start an idea, build something, never talk to the first potential user, and then quit because they got burned out, or no one would use their product.  They didn’t spend time on talking to users.  They didn’t ask them what would bring them value.  They didn’t ask users what they would pay for.  They tend to think “I need a new feature.”  No you don’t need more code.  You need to go talk to some users.  Go interview 10-100 users.  Talk to as many face to face as you can. See what themes come out of the discussion.  Build the first theme that comes out, that can be your mvp1.  Then build your second theme, that can be mvp2.  Keep building, keep talking to users, keep iterating. At some point in there, you need to have a hard conversation about money, both with yourself and with the users.  Should this be a subscription service, or should it be an advertising supported service.  Users tend to say ad service because it is cheap for them, but you need to run some numbers and see what works.

The point I am getting at in this, don’t just run to writing more code.  The solution to a talking to the user problem isn’t to just write more code, but to have a conversation with users to see what adds value to them, and how you can capture a fraction of that value.

The Hypocrisy of Reddit

I used to hang out in Reddit and try to help people in startups and investing area.  I tried to help in the .Net, c#, Maui areas, but I find that people don’t want to talk about these things, they want to argue the points, but moving on.

I’ve found that Reddit is full of hypocrisy at the level of the system itself.  I was recently banned for a “history of flagrant abuse.”  What?  Yeah, that’s what I said.  One of the questions asked was “what would you do if you were President of the US?”  In my smartass kind of way, I said “I would lockup all socialists in concentration camps and blare Adam Smith over the loud speakers until they repented.”  Clearly a joke.  I was reported for threatening people, challenged it, and I was denied.  Ugh.  When that ban was lifted, I responded to a question about Jay Powell not leaving the Fed board of governors with “there is about to be a cranial explosion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”  I was permanently banned after that joke.  I eventually received an email saying my ban was lifted, and it has not been.

I do go into Reddit to look at what people are talking about.  I saw a statement of “I would put all Trump supporters in concentration camps and murder them.”  It had many upvotes and had not been deleted, so that poster had not been banned.

Reddit, the home of the militant left and hypocrites.

Stepping Up To The Plate

step up to the plate

phrase

You are willingly accepting an opportunity.

tactical

adjective

tac·​ti·​cal ˈtak-ti-kəl 

A tactical solution means that it solves a problem today, but everyone is meh about the solution.  They could be meh for any number of reasons, but most likely fear of career failure by liking it.  When I was at coca-cola, tactical solutions were solutions that solved problems today, but that went against strategic solutions that were at least a year away.  Tactical solutions were also solutions that someone important hated and were against their pet ideas.

What I Expect From Engineers

Everyone doesn’t need to be an engineer.  But, if you are an engineer, you need some feel for the basics across all disciplines.  I saw a post where engineers weren’t expected to know what I would consider to be basic engineering.  Wrong, boy is that wrong.  That means, you better know not only your own field of engineering, but you need to know some amount of the basics in

Accounting.  You aren’t an accountant, but you need to know some basics.  What is income?  What is an expense?  What is an investment?  Understand the basics.

Sales and Marketing.  You better understand the basics of putting together concepts that will reasonate with the people you need to sell to.  This includes colleagues, management, and external customers.

Software.  No one is going to to expect you to write complex applications, but you had best understand the basic process of business rules, discovery, and putting that into code that solves problems.

Math.  Going along with software are databases.  Databases are complex math set theory.  You had best understand the basics.  We aren’t implementing multi-dimensional differential equations, but the basics of math, calculus, and set theory are actually important in life and business.

Mechaninical engineering.  Hopefully, you understand the basics of statics and dynamics.  If you don’t, well, I don’t want to be in a building you were involved in.

Electrical engineering.  Once again, I don’t need you to understand quantum effects of sub 5 nm vlsi design and how they effect design rules, but knowing what resistance, capacitance, and the basics of power are is a good thing.

Thermodynamics.  You aren’t designing an hvac system for a datacenter, but it would be great if you understood some basics.

Material science engineering.  You aren’t being asked to create new compounds or a new material design for a space craft.  I do expect you to know that the more you use a material, it will eventually wear out.

I also expect you to know your field of engineering.

We seem to live in a world we’re vibe coding is now somehow mistaken for software development and a professional service.  No, vibe coding is a quick solution to an immediate problem today, not a permanent solution to a serious problem.  I don’t want vibe coding doing product design, building in security for a user portal designed to process financial transactions, the electronic version of a a real estate mls listing form, the fuselage of a plane, the systems management of a 32 engine based rocket, or anything else that is serious.  

You need to bring some level of expertise to a job or project if you want to be taken seriously.

strategic

adjective

stra·​te·​gic strə-ˈtē-jik 

A product is considered to be strategic if it gets someone important excited.  That excitement can be either positive or negative.  For example, when I worked at The Coca-Cola Company, the former CIO hated lotus notes.  Whenever the subject of lotus notes came up, he would run around and tell the business unit that this was a strategic product and was 100% under his control.  Since he hated lotus notes due to one comment that a lotus salesperson made, he was going to kill any discussion of lotus notes.  Lotus notes was a strategic issue that only he was able to answer.  His name was Ira and he was moved to “special projects,” and Coca-Cola eventually had lotus notes.

Opportunity

opportunity noun

op·​por·​tu·​ni·​ty ˌä-pər-ˈtü-nə-tē  

-ˈtyü-

An opportunity is a big fucking problem coming your way.  

“This is an opportunity to show your value to the team.”