Another weekend, another experiment. Or weekend project? I’m not even sure how to call these things anymore, since all I do is think a little bit and talk a little bit, and out pops an app.

I didn’t even want to do this. But after one too many slight annoyance of my favorite nostr clients I was like: “fuck it, I’ll build one myself”

Less than 48h later, and I have something that covers my feature set reasonably well. And I didn’t even have to sit down at the computer to build it. I just spoke into my phone, installed from Zapstore, used it a bit, spoke into my phone some more to mention all the issues I just noticed and the features I’d like to see, and so on, on repeat.

It was a normal weekend, which means time away from the computer, spending time with the kids, being outside, and so on. I truly built all of this on the side. (Yes, sneaking away for a quick 30-second “phone call” from time to time, but you get what I’m trying to say: I didn’t have to sit in front of the computer, grunting away, staring into an IDE, borderline losing my mind.)

That’s the best part about all this: development feels effortless now. Effortless development. Who would’ve thought?

At least it’s for me, in comparison to all the development I did before. Before, it was actually hard work. A craft. Now, all you need to do is to talk (or type).

The limiting factor isn’t software development anymore. It’s taste. Taste, and maybe some imagination, and maybe drive on top of that. If you want to build the thing, you absolutely can build that thing now. One hundred percent. You just have to be stubborn enough.

It was clear to me that we’d arrive at this point at some point in time, which is why I posted “taste and values” over and over and over again in the last 18 months or so, ever since I entered into some state of AI psychosis.

But it’s wonderful. Wonderful, I tell you. We can build anything now. You can build anything now.

Unhappy with something? Tell your clanker to fix it. Want to build an app? Tell your clanker to build it. You don’t even need to sign up to anything, or join a walled garden, or anything of that sort. Look at nostr:npub1fetz9dt4eka56h0dpyly335v60mjf7k4gu2z7rqmptkz72e2pvhqvejzfa for some inspiration, to get an idea of what’s possible right now. The permissionless future is bright indeed.

I’m typing all this in the compose view of Feather, while sipping my morning coffee. An app that didn’t exist 48 hours ago. A view that didn’t exist 9 hours ago. Is everything fixed and perfect already? Of course not. But there’s no excuses anymore. If you care you can fix it. If you truly want it you can build it. No more “I don’t know how to do this.” Just say what you want and your clanker swarm will figure it out. Ask and you shall receive, and all that. What an incredible time to be alive.

Where to go from here? I have no idea. Apps will be superabundant, that much is clear to me. The cost of software is going to zero. There will be very little secret sauce left, if any. You can reverse engineer anything now, whether it’s open-source or not.

Software development has forever changed. We used to stand on the fields with picks and shovels; now we have internal combustion engines, hydraulics, excavators, and Bagger 288.

We still need human ingenuity, that’s for sure. Human spirit. (If you don’t believe me, listen to every lecture John Vervaeke ever gave. I’m serious. You should.) But above all, we need taste. Taste and values.

Without the right value framework in place anything we build will be meaningless.

So here I am, 18 months later, still posting about taste and values. But it’s not as vague anymore, and my hope is that it will be even more clear 18 months from now.

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• German translation by markusturm

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