#beyond beta

Elite: Dangerous Beyond 1st encounter with Thargoid scout Marauder Variant

Yesterday I decided to wake up a bit early and head to the New York Tech Business Development Breakfast. The breakfast was pretty much as expected. I'm starting to understand that these meet-ups are usually comprised of a handful of the same people with one or two new faces checking out the events. It was a cool opportunity to talk with some people who do business development at Etsy, Uber, and Secondmarket. The founder of Say It With A Condom was also there passing out business cards - which were hilariously wrapped condoms. I thought it was definitely a worthwhile experience to check this breakfast out, but I don't see myself rushing back anytime soon.

Later in the afternoon, I headed over to Lerer Ventures for their open house. At Lerer, I got to meet with a few of the venture investors, who all seemed like nice guys. There was also a dynamic mix of entrepreneurs in the room. I saw a couple of people that I met at the USV happy hour. The best part of the day was when I got to meet someone from Treehouse. Treehouse is an interactive resource to teach people how to code. I talked about my experience learning python, and the Treehouse employee offered to let me check out some of the Javascript stuff on their site. I watched a few videos. They seem cool. I'm still a big fan of Learn Python The Hard Way and Udacity.

Last night, as part of Brooklyn Beta Tech Week, I visited Union Square Ventures for their kick-off Happy hour. I have gone to quite a few meet-ups at this point. This one was a really nice mix of local tech talent. I assume it's because some of USVs portfolio companies got wind of the event and decided to show up for a drink. Unlike most of the other meet-ups I'd been to, there was no structure at this one. There was an open room with a small bar set-up in the corner. The most interesting part of the night came when a tech guy from Behance told us he was going to be on a panel to debate "whether it's beneficial for designers to learn code." A small debate started in our group, and I realized that I think it would be very beneficial for designers to learn how to code. For the sake of this blog post, let's assume learning to code means a fundamental understanding of a back-end language so one is able to create a project using the help of Google to work through syntax. Designers should learn to code for two reasons. The first is obvious: efficiency when working with developers. If a designer understands code, and the team needs to push out a project quickly, the designer would have a basic understanding of how much time each part of the site would take to develop. For example, if the designer thinks there should be a comment box that is based on how people vote - they'll know this takes a lot more work that adding a like button or some other comment system in its place. The developers are happy, and the development moves quicker. Sounds positive. But I think there's another factor to consider that's equally as important. Designers should understand the power of computers. They should know what computers are capable of so they can emphasize this power in a clean design. I am confident that it will push the way designers conceive a site. The idea of a mechanic was thrown around in a conversation. One of the guys asked, 'does someone who builds the exterior of cars need to understand how the engine works?' I'd argue 'yes.' The most efficient designs come from those who understand the function of the entire product - not just a part of it. For these reason, I think designers should spend the few months to learn how to code.