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Comment by pg | Hacker News Reader

The problem is, sales and marketing people generally don't have good ideas for startups. Because they're not masters of the medium, they don't know what's possible.

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I think that there is a very strong emotional bond involved when programmers create a product that they think is the best. This is because they have both the craft and the vision - these are critical components for success.

Rokhyakebe in your suggested model marketers will have the vision and not the craft and programmers will have the craft and not the vision.

They often do know what's needed, though. Most of the time their ideas won't be feasible, at any level of technology (I think this idea may be an example). But once in a while they might come across something that's just on the edge of possible, if they find someone who knows the tech well enough to know where the edge is.

Call me crazy but it feels good to have PG comment. To get back to your comment, I respectfully disagree. that is like putting a limit to the power of thought. Think about manufacturing. How many clothing line make millions of dollars and are highly successful, but the founder can't even use a sewing machine. Same for moms who make millions because they thought of a crazy fork-knife combined and hired a manufacturer to make a prototype. Or how many people own a Italian restaurant and are American and never been to Italy and don't know how to cook. It all start with what if if I can say that, then I just need to get up and go find someone to make it. Excuse the typo, suretype is still at its primitive stage.

Unless you're a celebrity, how many people have clothing lines can't design clothes? How many people own restaurants and don't know how to cook?

How many people think designing software is as easy as designing a spork?

Thinking of a unique clothing line isn't that different from thinking of a unique web app. If you doubt then I suggest you grap a grab a pair of loafers from cole haan and compare it to one from banana republic. Look at the threads inside. Look at the cut and drive with it. If you think it is the same then you are as my friend who cannot understand the differnce between hotmail and gmail. Designing a jcrew sweater for complicated people like me is as hard as designing a web app. You are looking at major clothing lines, but maybe you should digg underground and find brands that are less known. The restaurant argument is harder to prove. So you got that one. And even if designing a sweater was easier than building a web app, I can argue that you can distributing your service is 25 times easier than distributing your sweater.

Yes, exactly.

You're kind of proving my point here. Designing clothing is hard. Designing web apps are hard. You need to be good at each to be successful at each. You won't be good at either if all you have is a "business/marketing genius" with an idea.

Thinking of a unique clothing line isn't that different from thinking of a unique web app. If you doubt then I suggest you grap a grab a pair of loafers from cole haan and compare it to one from banana republic. Look at the threads inside. Look at the cut and drive with it. If you think it is the same then you are as my friend who cannot understand the differnce between hotmail and gmail. Designing a jcrew sweater for complicated people like me is as hard as designing a web app. You are looking at major clothing lines, but maybe you should digg underground and find brands that are less known. The restaurant argument is harder to prove. So you got that one. And even if designing a sweater was easier than building a web app, I can argue that distributing your app is 25 times easier than distributing your sweater.

There's a lot of layers of the medium. Design and programming is only a narrow part of the broader picture.

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