I actually think it's largely because designers haven't learned how to execute their own working prototypes for the last little while due to the segmentation of roles in corporations/agencies. But it's not like they are short of great ideas.
I think given another decade with more young people learning both design and code, and companies demanding people know both, we'll see more designers (with rudimentary coding knowledge) starting businesses.
Though, I've always been curious as to why Rasmus Andersson (Spotify, Facebook, Dropbox) never started his own company. I consider him one of the rare people in tech industry who has advanced knowledge of design and code.
Designers that spend time learning both to design and code well aren't great designers. Programming isn't the only core activity in a company, design is intense and none of the designers I know would have time to code even if they knew how; they just have so many things on their plate.
This applies to a small company of < 10 people. Do you really want your only designer writing crappy code while they have a huge backlog of design work to get done?
HN seems to be obsessed the designers are somehow broken because they can't code, that programming is to be worshiped and other essential activities devalued. Maybe this is a problem with the industry as a whole, but lately I have noticed that hiring good designers has become harder than hiring good coders.
I think given another decade with more young people learning both design and code, and companies demanding people know both, we'll see more designers (with rudimentary coding knowledge) starting businesses.
Though, I've always been curious as to why Rasmus Andersson (Spotify, Facebook, Dropbox) never started his own company. I consider him one of the rare people in tech industry who has advanced knowledge of design and code.