A couple decades into my career, it has never once failed me that a person describing others in a community or team as “non-technical” is a reliable indicator that they fundamentally do not understand how technology is created. There’s no such thing as a “non-technical” person. - ThreadSky

anildash.com • 83 days ago

A couple decades into my career, it has never once failed me that a person describing others in a community or team as “non-technical” is a reliable indicator that they fundamentally do not understand how technology is created. There’s no such thing as a “non-technical” person.

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Comments

robertodevido.bsky.social•83 days ago

In the coding/non-coding context that some have cited, yes, but in the broader world, there are MANY people who are minimally functional with digital tech, especially the elderly. A fax machine is as far as my 91-year-old mother will go across the digital divide, and she is afraid to engage farther.

corbieailin.bsky.social•83 days ago

SO worth a conversation. I've consulted on projects in marketing, a11y, operations, and project management roles and am typically considered "non-technical" when I do despite my 20+ years of dev experience. ALL those roles are technical wo code exp.

mapwitch.bsky.social•83 days ago

I'm in the most technical role of my career handling licensing and it amuses me when people don't realize that "back office stuff" is extremely complex and not for the faint of heart.

notpickard.com•83 days ago

"im a huge fan of but don't understand star trek"

shar1z.com•83 days ago

As a person who does developer relations as their day job very successfully, and is not an engineer, this is something I encounter ALL THE TIME.

This catchphrase is almost always == doesn't write code.

That's literally the benchmark for someone to be "non-technical".

It's tiring.

chessercat.bsky.social•83 days ago

Making it even funnier that the people who make buildings stand up sure as hell don’t consider coders to be engineers.

reginajorts.bsky.social•83 days ago

I feel the same about “unskilled labor”.

omarsultan.me•83 days ago

Specifically how successful technology is created. General Magic (the movie) should be mandatory viewing for these folks.

joeprisk.bsky.social•83 days ago

🙅‍♂️ non-technical
💁‍♂️ technical adjacent

lauraglu.bsky.social•81 days ago

Please tell those responsible for salary bands for “non technical” roles thank you.

mtsw.bsky.social•83 days ago

e.g. one of the "non-technical" positions on a film set, a job where you do not strictly need to know any particular technical details whatsoever in order to perform it, is "director"

anildash.com•83 days ago

Steve Jobs was the “non-technical” one of Apple’s 3 cofounders.

travisatkins.bsky.social•83 days ago

that’s not true though. Steve Jobs invented pivot tables. There’s many auctioned items of Steve Jobs specific personal debugging notes on circuit board diagrams. Watch the keynote that he gives at Microsoft Dev conference in ‘96: he knows more about core web functionality, than lotsa webdevs today.

josephmoran.bsky.social•83 days ago

Also "actor."

mtsw.bsky.social•83 days ago

i disagree and actually think actor is a very techinical job if you're performing it at a high level.

josephmoran.bsky.social•83 days ago

That was your point to start with, yeah? They're ALL "technical" jobs.

gamsilroy.bsky.social•83 days ago

I fucking just died

mtsw.bsky.social•83 days ago

it's true!

gamsilroy.bsky.social•83 days ago

Boy howdy do i know!

jaredcosulich.bsky.social•83 days ago

I don't think that's necessarily the case. It has become a phrase in software development for someone who is not expert enough at coding to understand the nuances, which often is something valuable to know. It's not a great phrase, but the underlying intention can be valuable.

jaredcosulich.bsky.social•83 days ago

That said like most phrases (e.g. "cheap and cheerful") it's definitely annoying. In this case it's both technically inaccurate and I could easily see it being used in a demeaning fashion.

travisatkins.bsky.social•83 days ago

wtf does the phrase “cheap and cheerful“ mean?

jaredcosulich.bsky.social•83 days ago

I think basically an mvp that people like? Something that is "cheap" to create but causes "cheer" on using. It's right up there (in the annoying category) with using the word "delight" to describe products for me.

gribblette.bsky.social•82 days ago

Why does delight bother you?

jaredcosulich.bsky.social•82 days ago

It feels like a superficial description to me. Product experiences can cause delight but more often people just appreciate them. It feels similar to calling a company a “family” to me. I understand the sentiment it’s just over the top for me.

dylan.hardison.net•82 days ago

This is the cousin of the “easy enough for (typically but not universally grandmother or mother)”. Instant loss of credibility in people that say these things.

botmatrix.bsky.social•83 days ago

I bet this guy would refer to the people on his finance team as "non-technical."

dollworks.bsky.social•83 days ago

I describe the parts of the job designers get trained in a “technical skills” because they are, yet are so often discounted because it’s not writing code. (Contrast technical design skills with interpersonal skills, aka soft skills, another phrase I hate.)

gribblette.bsky.social•82 days ago

I call them core skills. It is core to be able to listen, understand, respond, give & take feedback, and leave the room with someone not dreading your next encounter.

petnatwhine.bsky.social•83 days ago

There is a way of using language to exclude which is about getting one over others, of gaining power. Every industry where I have seen this behavior, it has been about zero sum advantage. Finance-engineering-contracting-tech.

krishnaroskin.bsky.social•83 days ago

Same and I feel the when people talk about creatives and non-creatives.

kevinriggle.bsky.social•83 days ago

I have started saying that I’m writing for “smart people who are not domain experts in [whatever]” (software engineering, cybersecurity, ML, etc) whenever I find myself tempted by that term

mattyfastwheelz.bsky.social•46 days ago

Why can’t I see this post

anildash.com•46 days ago

lol he blocked me

mattyfastwheelz.bsky.social•46 days ago

Yeah but he didn’t block me so why cannot see it? I’m new here

dddetray.bsky.social•83 days ago

You may be right, but have you ever met a piano teacher in her 70s? There is a non-zero chance that trying to open an email attachment will result in the computer being dismantled and strewn across her table.

frostreads.bsky.social•83 days ago

Well, that disdain for "non-technicals" certainly explains some of the stupidity we see from DOGE...

chessercat.bsky.social•83 days ago

That’s a passel of folks who have never set foot in a humanities class, and it shows.

mlascarides.bsky.social•83 days ago

Language is technology.

kentindell.bsky.social•83 days ago

Let’s test your rule: Tony Blair.

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