The badge of ignorance
Friday was Manufacturing Day in the US. Factories across the country opened their doors for kids, hobbyists, anyone interesting in taking a tour of their facility. Throughout the day, I drove up and down Silicon Valley visiting PCB manufacturers. After a day of tours with grey-haired men, the last tour stands out because an innocent question from an interested woman.
I moved to San Francisco after a startup I founded in North Carolina failed. Fortunately, I got an entry-level sales job at Yelp, then joined Redbeacon as the first sales hire. Those experiences gave me the knowledge -if you want to start a tech company in Silicon Valley, you must learn how to code. My goal was to start another company which meant I had to learn how to code. With ~$20k in the bank, I took a year off to teach myself Python.
The commonality between these two stories is ignorance. As the woman on the PCB tour didn’t really know what a PCB was, I had no clue how to code. I can’t remember what her question was exactly, but the man next to me let out an audible sound of disgust which made a few people turn. It was the type of grunt that expressed “Why do I have to put up with this stupidity?!”
Whenever I hear someone do something like this, it reminds me of the year I learned how to code. On many occasions it was brutally obvious I was the dumb one in the group. “What’s the difference between a list and a set?” “A server does what?” So many little questions made my position clear to those around me. Reactions to my ignorance were mixed from support to the same disgust expressed by the man on the PCB tour.
If you’ve ever tried to learn a new skill, you’ve experienced that range of reaction. It isn’t limited to tech, Silicon Valley, or women. It’s the stigma of ignorance. A certain percent of people within any discipline are jack asses, and don’t feel like they need to put up beginners. Why? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s an insecurity. Maybe it’s their personality.
There is one thing every beginner must understand — every single expert was once the ignorant one in the room. They had to put up with that same jerk. The difference between the knowledgeable and the ignorant is that the knowledgeable took it on the chin, and kept going. Now I’m not condoning the behavior of these ass holes, but if you want to accomplish your goals, it comes with the territory. When people scoff at your questions, just move on until you find the answer. Know that up front, and when you see it, ignore it.
Taking that year off to learn how to code was the best decision I’ve ever made. Two years ago, I founded Tindie, “the Etsy of Hardware,” and now have backing by Andreessen Horowitz, Version One Ventures, Founder’s Co-op, and Slow Ventures. I am on that road I set out for myself over 6 years ago when I moved to Silicon Valley.
Now I’m not the best engineer in the world — far from it. However I’ve worn that badge of ignorance, and in many ways still do. Just know when people balk at your badge, it’s means you are on the right path. Keep pushing. You are on a difficult journey, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I’m proof of that.
