The RNA world hypothesis has become a central part of current thought on the origin of life. For biologists, this has provided especially fertile ground, since the biological origins of genetically encoded protein synthesis and of deoxyribonucleotide synthesis through ribonucleotide reduction can both be understood within an RNA world framework. However, these are not the only possible routes by which proteins and DNA could have evolved. Some proteins are synthesised by modular non-ribosomal peptide synthetases, and E. coli have recently been engineered to synthesise deoxyribonucleotides via the previously hypothetical reverse deoxyriboaldolase reaction. In this chapter, I consider to what degree these alternative processes impact our understanding of the evolutionary transitions from RNA to proteins and DNA.