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Key Takeaways Hands-on knowledge in the creation of a minimum viable product allows entrepreneurs to validate their ideas quickly, saving time and reducing costs.
AI-powered tools are reducing the barrier to entry for learning technical skills, but a foundational knowledge remains crucial for sustainable success.
Say you’re renovating your kitchen, and you’ve got it all figured out, down to the model of the ventilation hood and the exact shade of the countertop granite. You can see the whole thing in your mind: the great meals you’ll cook on your top-of-the-line range; the way you’ll pull wine glasses for friends out of the handcrafted cabinets (which, by the way, bring out the earth tones in the backsplash). It’s going to be perfect.
Except for one, tiny detail: You’ve never renovated a kitchen. And you have no idea where to start.
Sure, you can hire contractors and designers to handle every step. But without even a basic grasp of carpentry or design, you’ll be in the dark. You won’t know whether their timeline is realistic or how to gauge whether the materials they’re proposing are worth the cost. With even a baseline amount of knowledge, the entire process would run a whole lot smoother.
These days, there’s a growing belief that you don’t need to be tech-savvy to launch a product. With AI at your side, the thinking goes, you can take a business from idea to execution without ever writing a single line of code.
While I agree that AI is making it easier than ever to start a business, I still think there’s value in understanding the nuts and bolts of coding. Just as a homeowner wants to be able to identify poorly installed drywall if they see it, every business owner should have a grasp of what’s going on under the hood of the technology on which their product relies. Here’s why.
Related: AI Is Changing How We Start Businesses — Here’s What You Need to Know
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