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    Weijie Ng · · 1 min read

    Should a non-technical founder/CEO learn how to code?

    Hi TIA community, I come from a non-technical background (studied Business), and have tried learning a bit of coding from online resources such as Codecademy and Coursera. I’ve also read many debates on this topic, and some really good answers come from Quora:
    http://www.quora.com/To-what-extent-should-a-non-technical-founder-learn-how-to-code
    http://www.quora.com/From-the-point-of-view-of-non-technical-founders-why-dont-you-learn-to-code-a-prototype

    However, many of such good answers come from founders based in US, so I was wondering if I can get an Asian perspective here?

    Some ‘Pros’ and ‘Cons’ that I can think of here:

    Pros
    1. I can understand my engineers better, also means better communication.
    2. I can understand the overall project timeline better, improved resource planning and goal projections.
    3. Coding is easy to learn, but difficult to master, so there’s no harm in knowing a bit of code.

    Cons
    1. Learning to code properly is very time consuming, and it takes time off my normal role as a CEO. I can’t be everywhere.
    2. If I can get a technical co-founder or hire a CTO, I do not need to learn coding.

    Any thoughts are welcome!

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    Community Writer

    Weijie Ng

    Currently working on my ecommerce startup. Email me at weijie.ng86@gmail.com if interested to chat!