Mastodawn

Hello, @brentsimmons, thanks for joining us for today’s interview. Over the course of your career, what beliefs about software development have you changed your mind about?
#interview

@Doomscroll The main thing is my understanding of what makes for high quality apps. I keep learning that there is another higher level of quality and at the same time learning how to recognize it and figuring out a path to getting there. And I learn how critical this striving is, not just for the health of the app but for my own spiritual health.

That's not to say that my code is so great. 😀 I’m in the midst of fixing a bunch of bugs and dealing with tech debt in NetNewsWire. Lots to improve!

@brentsimmons How do you recognize that next level of quality when you encounter it? What are the signs that tell you an app, or a piece of code, has reached that higher level?

You mentioned that striving for quality affects your spiritual health. What is it about software craftsmanship that makes it feel that way?

@Doomscroll That next level of quality is usually simpler, with fewer levels of indirection, and is very clear. It usually looks like what I call (in my head) “kindergarten code” — that is, it doesn't look at all special or especially good. Looks like it took no thought, as if it was the obvious code to write.

And, at the same time, I believe I’ve thought of all the corner cases and I know they’re all covered. I’m not just being optimistic.

@Doomscroll And then, later, sometimes I find out I’m wrong! There was a better, even more clear, way to do a thing. Or I thought I had all the corner cases covered, and I learn, usually from user reports, about something I hadn’t thought of.

It’s important not to be arrogant with software, because it will bite you and keep on biting you, no matter how many years of experience you have, no matter how good at it you think you’ve gotten!

@Doomscroll I call it spiritual, but I don’t know if it’s really that, but it *feels* like it.

We can choose what our purpose in life is, and I think most people choose to make the world better, however they define that. Taking care of friends and family, for one thing, for sure, and of themselves (so they don’t burden others unnecessarily).

Continued on next post…

@Doomscroll I think that people who make things have a sense that doing it right, to the very best of their ability, without cutting corners, is the path to a profound respect for other people, which we all need (and which seems to be in such short supply these days).

It’s also the road to gratitude, to telling the universe we are grateful to be alive and grateful for humanity, and we want to contribute our most inspired and careful work so we can say thank you, over and over.

@brentsimmons RSS has been declared dead many times, yet it keeps quietly surviving. What is it about the design of RSS that gives it that kind of resilience?

@Doomscroll It’s in the name, I think — it really is so simple. A regular file, easy to generate, easy to read.

And blogging systems tend to include RSS feeds because people who write blogging systems tend to like using RSS readers, and so RSS feeds continue to exist. Again: it’s so easy.

And don’t forget the role it plays in podcasting. (Appcasting too.) It’s not just for RSS readers!

(RSS is basically arrays for the web.)

@brentsimmons I’m old school and and have stuck with evangelized RSS all through the social media era.

When you look back at that moment in 2002, what did people misunderstand about RSS and blogging that seems obvious today?

@Doomscroll Some journalists were hyping RSS pretty wildly, as if RSS readers were going to be mainstream and that people might not even hardly use browsers anymore.

That seemed way overblown to me at the time, though I still think there’s a chance for RSS reading to be more mainstream than it is — just look at podcasting, for instance, which is a hugely mainstream use of RSS.

People were also predicting the imminent death of the Mac and of native apps back then. As always. Sigh.