Someone asked me today: what do you do, exactly?
今天有人问我：你到底算什么？
I couldn’t answer. Not a programmer — I don’t really know code. Not a designer — I have no certificate, no formal training. Not a product manager in the corporate sense. Just someone who built a website today with articles, music, video, books, a navigation page, a consulting landing page, and a CMS backend to manage it all.
我答不上来。不是程序员——我看不懂代码。不是设计师——没有证书，没受过正规训练。也不是那种公司里的产品经理。只是一个今天搭起了一个网站的人——有文章、音乐、视频、书籍、导航页、咨询落地页，还有一套后台管理系统。
So what does that make me?
那我算什么？
I think the answer is: a product person.
我想答案是：产品人。
Programmers know how to write code, but often don’t know what to build. Designers know how to make things look right, but don’t always know who they’re making it for. A product person knows what needs to exist, who it’s for, and what it should feel like. That’s the hardest part. And it can’t be borrowed.
程序员知道怎么写代码，但不一定知道要做什么。设计师知道怎么让东西好看，但不一定知道为谁做。产品人知道什么东西该存在、为谁存在、应该是什么感觉。这是最难的部分。也是借不来的部分。
Code is a tool. Design is a tool. Tools can be borrowed, hired, or learned.
代码是工具。设计是工具。工具可以借，可以雇，可以学。
Judgment cannot.
判断力不行。
I spent today not writing a single line of code myself, but I knew exactly when something looked wrong, when the spacing felt off, when the navigation didn’t flow right, when a page needed a different energy. That knowing — that’s the work.
今天我自己一行代码没写，但我知道什么时候有地方看起来不对，什么时候间距感觉有问题，什么时候导航不顺畅，什么时候一个页面需要不同的气质。那种”知道”——就是工作本身。
Many “real programmers” couldn’t have built what we built today. Not because they lack the skill, but because they don’t know what it should look like.
很多”真正的程序员”做不到今天我们做的这个。不是因为他们缺乏技术，而是因为他们不知道它应该是什么样子。
Knowing what it should look like is everything.
知道它应该是什么样子，就是全部。
So maybe I don’t have a certificate. Maybe I can’t read the code. But I know what I’m building, I know who it’s for, and I know when it’s right.
所以也许我没有证书。也许我看不懂代码。但我知道自己在建什么，知道为谁建，知道什么时候对了。
That’s enough. That’s actually quite a lot.
这就够了。这其实已经很多了。