We need to bring back the magic of software because it is the only way to push the boundaries of our dreams. Because it is the only way to give our dream machines back their real meaning.

The people that worked inside an organization are the ones that can explain and critique it with the most insight. They also tend to be more emotionally invested in the company’s success. I plan to continue criticizing (and praising) the organizations I’ve worked for, and I hope others do the same. Of course they did, but just because people ask for something doesn’t mean we should build it. Experimentation is something you can do internally, via user testing, in private betas, or on whiteboards. Experiments don’t have revenue goals, and usually don’t require full-time engineers working for months. Experiments don’t have splashy launches and email campaigns to hundreds of thousands of users. Would I have criticized this publicly if it was just an experiment? Absolutely not.

“The main way to prevent software from rotting, it seems, is to maintain it: update it so that it continues to work as the platforms supporting them change underneath. In this sense, though, it’s not the same software you started with, as it’s continuously changing.”