I know how to Build software. I don’t know how to Sell It.

For the last couple of days, I was in a room (well, on Zoom, but still) with tech business owners, CEOs, CTOs, VPs—you name it.

I was there because of discussions around the company I currently work for. But before we got to our actual topic, the group spent a surprising amount of time polishing a PowerPoint presentation about one company’s vision.

I mean really polishing it. Rectangles. Positions. Shapes. Wording. Multiple iterations over several days.

My first reaction, as a software engineer, was: Why are we wasting so much time on this? It’s just a presentation.

Internally, I thought it was stupid.

But they kept going. And they discussed it really seriously. Now I need to remember - those were people leading big tech organisations.

Then I started to think that I am the least smart person in this virtual room. And most likely I am stupid that I don’t understand what and why they do.

When this call was finished I kept thinking about this for several hours. And the longer I think about it the more I am trying to accept the fact that building software and selling it is totally different thing.

This is why I still have no own product that would bring me some income, even small one. I always exchanged my time & experience for money. Just over time the hourly rate increased.

We, software engineers, like to think we are the smartest people in the world and everyone else is not. But it is not true.

I am trying to notice when I am starting to judge that something is stupid. And rethink it. Maybe it’s just an opportunity to learn something?

Someday I would like to try to build my own product. Nothing big, just something that solves somebody’s problem with tech. And if I know in general how to build software - I have no idea how to talk and show it.

This Zoom call was a lesson. It does not mean I will have to make polished PowerPoint presentations from now on. What I don’t know is how to talk about it. How to show it. How to make people care.

Instead of judging, I want to stay curious.