I am doing both JS / Node course and learning bubble at the same time. I also learned Webflow / Zapier / Airtable stack, and it was a cool experience.
I feel like #Nocode gives you a bigger bang for the short term to launch a product and really testing it. However, knowing how to code helps going into #nocode as there is some learning curve there which mostly revolves about tools and its connections.
Just curious what stack and which way are you going for your next project?
Look, I know the 'no code' got a lot of attention, but the reality is that learning to code is the only way to grow. I don't mean from the business perspective, but from your personal side.
The advantage of no-code options is that you can build a website very rapidly and test your ideas live, see if people like it or not, do some testing. The common advice is to iterate as quickly as possible to learn as much as possible from your users. Even if you know how to code, you'll probably use the best tools around.
Just as an example, check this blog: Signal v Noise, it is from the creators of Basecamp, on of the founders is actually the creator of a framework called Ruby on Rails. However, the blog is built and hosted on Wordpress. Even if the guys had the ability of building their own solution, they went for the best available tool for them.
However, once you know how to code, you'll be completely free, and is the best move for your life. There are more and more jobs that require some level of programming. Even if they don't, you can become more efficient at your current job if you know how to program. And in the years to come, digital literacy is going to be a standard just as reading.
How to choose a tech stack is highly dependent on what you want to achieve in the longer term, and you have to understand that you have languages and frameworks. If you just want to focus on web technologies, you can learn go, or ruby (I would skip PHP, honestly). But, HTML, Javascript, and CSS have to be in there as well. The best is to learn by looking into open-source projects. See something you would like to replicate, dig into how they did things, modify them and try them on your own. In my case, I went for python, mostly because it covers from data analysis (I am a Physicist) to building websites.
Yeah, if you're interested in the technology, learning to code is a superpower and actually quite fun.
On the other side, hardcore entrepreneurs could probably build any internet business on top of Wordpress or email lists. So if serving a product is what drives you, no code can be enough.
Thanks for taking the time to reply! Really like that perspective and agree. I actually mostly do sales & growth but love digging into technical aspects as well. So some projects I build straight away on Webflow + Zapier but would love to have the flexibility of going for the code stack option. Also #Nocode is ridiculously expensive as opposed to say JAMstack for LPs & testing.
In my opinion, the easy stack for fast modern prototyping is: Bootstrap + vuejs + Firebase, but if you don't have experience in programming you need to learn the basics at the beginning: HTML/JS/CSS/AJAX...
The ability to #nocode and code are not mutually exclusive, they compliment each other. Just different tools for different purposes, with some overlap here and there.
#nocode can help you to:
code can help you to:
I (love to) write code and have done for 20 years, but for certain things I would 10/10 use #nocode tools every time. If I was starting up a web design / development agency today, it would absolutely be a #nocode shop. There are tools out there that cover 95% of what most clients need, and for the other 5%...well, who cares? you don't want the hassle of clients with complex requirements anyway!
Thanks for the balanced view @yongfook and appreciate your time for writing the comment! Exactly what I have been looking for.
I have been developing for quite a while and it has been extremely useful and empowering to know I can build any idea that I want.
That benefit though comes at a cost because the more development skills you have, the deeper the rabbit holes you are willing to go down feature and time wise. In other words, why go MVP when you can go full launch.
A non-developer is forced to find easier ways to get an idea online and while it may not look as great or have as many features, it allows them to focus on testing and growing their market and moving on if the project fails to gain traction.
That said, some development is always a good to know, but I would focus on learning what you need for specific MVP launches you are focused on creating.
Yep, thats my approach. Learning Node + JS is just purely for myself, and well if I can utilise it in the future, that's great. But I think we should usually all play to our strengths.
Great that you are learning both @kirso. I don't code myself so I rely on no-code tools for building and creating projects and MVPs. It really is a powerful way to create something that you want to test and then begin to gather feedback and iterate accordingly. You can always test out your hypothesis with a no-code stack and then once you get better product market fit, you can try to create something more robust with your development skills further down the line.