I don't think that's the point of this article. The point is that you need to be able to talk to your co-founder about technical and non-technical problems. It's not that you should become so technically sufficient so that you can be the technical co-founder, but so that you can speak the same language as your co-founder.

In six months you can easily pick up the basic ideas need to converse with someone about technical issues, and at least understand what the other person needs. Maybe you'll even learn enough to help out and create the demo, or something.

As a qualified professional, who would you rather have a meeting with?

a.) Someone who says they have a 'killer' startup idea but no technical ability to execute it.

b.) Someone who has an idea and has already executed a working prototype of that idea for you to check out.

Are either of these individuals particularly skilled on the marketing/monetization side?

If so I would take the one that can handle that side better.

Also, don't bother researching illnesses for yourself on the web. A medical professional will have every motivation to pay attention to every little symptom you tell about.

The first iteration of a startup will almost always be wrong and you'll have to throw most of it away. So it doesn't matter so much whether its the best code in the world or not. The important thing is that you learn from your first iteration. If you don't have a tech background and hand off the first implementation to a superstar, it's very possible that you won't learn anything. If you do it yourself, you will learn a lot one way or another.

Also, it helps in many ways to be able to demonstrate that you are not an idiot.

I also wasn't suggesting that this is the right strategy for every kind of startup. Some are very tech-intensive, and actually learning everything you'd need to learn would take years. But those aren't usually the ideas that people with no technical expertise and no technical cofounders are having. Usually their innovation is social, not technical, and something that's within their capabilities to build.

Professionals exist for a reason. That doesn't mean he can't learn enough to establish a MVP and become knowledgeable about the subject domain though.

Being able to call BS from your developers or a perspective co-founder doesn't require you to be a programming god.

I absolutely agree! To write code (an good one) you needs years...if you spend that much time for this then you may very well forget about your startup and become a developer (in the meantime, look at your idea implemented by others).