我對Rails之父的觀察

Rails之父,網路代號DHH,本名David Heinemeier Hansson。
我不認識他本人,但是從他自己的blog、他的合夥人Jason Fried的描述、媒體的採訪,我發現幾件事和想像中的不一樣。撰文和各位分享。


他本來是個有商業天賦的PHP工程師

DHH的合夥人Jason Fried在Hacker News親自寫道

我遇見DHH時他是個PHP工程師。我寫過一些PHP,能夠稍微評估他的能力。除此之外,我還喜歡他的商業素養以及平常做事的方法—都跟我很合。(*1)

他本來不覺得自己適合當程式設計師

他接受Big Think訪問時,其中這段提到:

說來有點好笑。我以前寫PHP跟Java的時候,常常花時間去摸其他程式語言。到處摸看看其他程式語言…隨便什麼都好。寫PHP跟Java實在太悶了,我需要用這種方式讓自己暫時抽離。(*2)

還有這段:

我以前寫PHP跟Java的時候,完全不覺得自己之後會當程式設計師。(*3)

閱讀程式設計的教材、範本給他很多苦悶,他無法那樣學習

他在網誌中透漏,自己沒有對電腦熱愛到能夠純粹為了學習而學習。
請參閱我之前的翻譯:Rails之父:我怎麼學會寫程式的?

他不是資工系畢業的

看他在signalvnoise部落格下方的評論,網友Ben提到:

@DHH
你沒有資訊工程學位。這說明了超多事情。

DHH在下面回應:

我其實有半個資工學位(我們系是一半商業管理、一半電腦科學)。但我沒在學校真的學到怎麼寫程式。(*4)

翻閱維基百科的介紹

從Copenhagen商學院拿到商管與電腦科學學位後,他從丹麥搬到美國。(*5)

他拿的學位等於台灣的「資訊管理學系」。

他一開始只是接案,不是決心創業

DHH以Basecamp(以前叫37signals)公司合夥人的身份跟Jason Fried合出過幾本書。
大家都知道Rails是開發Basecamp的過程中,從code中抽離出來而成的框架。
那麼一開始他是如何定位自己呢?
我寫信給Jason Fried本人,問他股權的事情。他的答覆如下:

Hi Tony-

我們最一開始沒有談股權的事。

我一開始是發案給他,之後僱用成員工。我們一起工作了好幾年才談到公司所有權的事。

-Jason(*6)


*1
I’ve done some PHP programming in the past, and I met DHH when he was a PHP programmer, so I was able to evaluate his talent at a very basic level. Beyond that, however, I liked his business mind and general approach to things – they were closely aligned with my own.

*2
It’s kind of funny; when I used to develop in PHP or the stuff I did in Java, I was always looking for something else. I was always looking for another programming language, another… just something else, in part just to distract me from being bored in the languages I was in.

*3
I was absolutely not convinced that I was going to be a programmer when I was working with PHP and Java.

*4
I actually got half a comp sci degree (my bachelor was in biz admin/comp sci), but that wasn’t where I truly learned to program.

*5
After graduating from the Copenhagen Business School and receiving his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Business Administration, he moved from Denmark to Chicago, Illinois, U.S. in November 2005.

*6
Hi Tony-

We didn’t talk about stock at the very beginning.

I hired David as a contractor first, then an employee. We worked
together for a few years before there was any talk about ownership.

-Jason