I kinda "know" C. But I don't know how to make applications. Just really basic things. I'm not a good artist. I don't have hardware that could run guix at the moment. And I don't know if I could learn enough C or guile by the September hackathon.
> How could a non programmer help?
How would you like to help? For instance, would you like to learn how
to program?
In any case, the good first step is to install Guix and play around.
Look at the command line tools, read the documentation. Have a problem?
Ask on the #guix channel on Freenode, document the solution, and send a
patch. Read on the ‘diff’, ‘patch’, and ‘git format-patch’ commands if
necessary.
Learn how to write package recipes. There is a good (though a bit
outdated) intro [1]. What programs do you use daily? Are they
available in the distribution? Start with something simple, or look for
outdated versions and submit updates.
Are you familiar with graphics editors? Contribute artwork.
[1] https://gnu.org/software/guix/guix-ghm-andreas-20130823.pdf