Lately, I was introduced to the hackathon community. I attended my second hackathon this past weekend. The organization I work for powers student organized hackathons. Naturally, students would come up to me to ask for help. My response: “Oh, sorry. I’m not the technical one in my team” and point out someone else. One student’s respond particular struck me: “Are you kidding me?!”
I have my share of telling lame jokes but telling a sleep deprived student I know how to code when I don’t is definitely not one of them. At first, I felt apologetic. I felt ashamed being the non-technical one at a tech event. I asked myself multiple times, “Should I learn how to code?” Not knowing how to code doesn't make me any less awesome. Some people are good at coding. Some people are good at selling. Some people are good at making sure the trains run on time. I’m the latter.
Alexis Ohanian wrote a great article covering his thoughts on being the non-technical founder. I’m not hurt or sorry that people assumed that I can help with their code and disappointed when I give them this look:
I’m hungry for knowledge. Most of which are self-taught by reading and doing. I read about raising money, running a startup, attracting and retaining talent, and almost anything I find interesting even if it has nothing to do with my job title. Due to this huge appetite, I have to prioritize what I eat because there’s only so much I can digest. Unfortunately, coding is not one of them. (Note: I said “unfortunately” just to be polite).
All in all, technical or non-technical. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Who knows?Maybe one day I’ll take a bite of the Code Cake.
