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Craft software that makes people feel something

rapha.land

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Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#181

Post by 9rx »

Yokohiii wrote: post #107
9rx wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think straight duplication is quite unlikely. Is it? There are many different people selling wheels that are all pretty much indistinguishable from one another. The first one no doubt brought the 'wow'. But when the second person showed up with the same thing, what 'wow' would there be? Our entire system of trade assumes that duplication occurs as an intrinsic piece, with the only defining difference in that dupl…

I am stuck with your phrasing. Duplication is for me something like cloning or a perfect copy. Which I think is unusual. You will find a chinese phone that looks like an iPhone but is totally different and magnitudes cheaper. What you talk about is probably more like mimicking. Offering something that people are used to to get into the market. But every competitor will eventually look for things to make a brand or pr…

> Duplication is for me something like cloning or a perfect copy.

That's fair. But if you aren't offering a perfect clone, then you're offering something novel that will 'wow' your customers, no? The market will never take interest in what you are selling if there is no 'wow' factor.

> Which I think is unusual.

You make a fair point that unreasonable terms on intellectual property laws has made it much more unusual than it should be, but isn't unusual historically, and shouldn't be unusual given our system of trade that assumes that clones will be produced. It's the only way most people can participate in the economy (and why they currently feel left out; but that's another topic for another day).

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#182

Post by mmooss »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #180
fuzzfactor wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there has been a request to report suspected downvote-a-bots.

If they exist, I would probably be a candidate target for one (or more). I have a number of Commissioner Dreyfus-level haters. One pops up, from time to time, screeches, and throws poo. It’s kind of cute, actually. I cry myself to sleep, every night, over it.

HN should make an exception and allow the poo emoji. It would save a lot of words and BS, and time-consuming attempts at rationlization, because really that's all some comments have to say: 'I don't like this, regardless of any evidence or reason or merit'. That would be honest - it's not the HN ideal but those comments are and will always be present regardless.

Imagine a comment with a string of poo comments beneath it. It would get their point across and the silliness would save bad feelings and flamewars. @dang should try it on April 1st or something. I'm serious - it would lighten things up a bit around here and, as I said, dispel a lot of white lies and manipulative posts.

If you post poo, that's the only character allowed in that comment, and maybe your only response allowed in that subthread. Also, you can't downvote the parent, and nobody can respond to or vote on a poo post. The UI would just be knowing how to manually enter the correct Unicode codepoint. New and recent accounts can't poop - bathrooms for regular customers only!

(I've now revised this comment about five times as I've refined my idea.)

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#183

Post by wkjagt »

lloydatkinson wrote: post #169
Schlagbohrer wrote: post #144

"So, I woke up today. Got my coffee, family went to sleep, and I have a free afternoon." What kind of schedule or different timezone does this author have with their family? I am trying to imagine a family that either goes to bed in the early afternoon or a person who wakes up in the evening to start their day.

> I always use the example of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game is so well crafted that I know people who don’t even like video games but bought a console just to play it — and once they finished, they sold everything. I feel like with the part you highlighted and this quote here that we are reading a blog post from an alternate dimension or something.

I sold my Nintendo Switch when I stopped playing with it. Then a year or so later I really wanted to play Breath of the Wild again, because it's just so beautiful, and bought another Switch just for that.

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#184

Post by bbkane »

socalgal2 wrote: post #93
jesse__ wrote: post #39

> created solely for myself; I never had the intention of making it [...] mainstream This is a habit I picked up from two people I respect greatly as programmers; Casey Muratori and Jonathan Blow. Those guys both built their own little lands; Jon went as far as building a new language, a 3D game engine in that language, and has multiple game titles in-flight in the engine. I have a handful of projects that are simila…

Blow hasn't shipped anything in 10 years. I think Casey as well

Looks like his Sokoban game releases 2026- he just uploaded a trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OIxuGF6CwnU&pp=2AEAkAIB

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#185

Post by bbkane »

jesse__ wrote: post #39

> created solely for myself; I never had the intention of making it [...] mainstream This is a habit I picked up from two people I respect greatly as programmers; Casey Muratori and Jonathan Blow. Those guys both built their own little lands; Jon went as far as building a new language, a 3D game engine in that language, and has multiple game titles in-flight in the engine. I have a handful of projects that are simila…

I haven't gone this far, but I get the same joy out of little side project CLIs and libraries.

In particular I've written a CLI framework and a few apps with it. The apps' requirements stretched the framework's capabilities, so I've rewritten large parts of it over the years.

It's incredibly satisfying to feel myself get better as a developer as I write and consume and improve my libraries.

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#186

Post by fuzzfactor »

mmooss wrote: post #178
fuzzfactor wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there has been a request to report suspected downvote-a-bots.

How would you objectively identify such a thing? 'I think this downvote is dumb' isn't sufficient, obviously.

If the moderators have a record of who's doing the voting, it might even be possible for some form of AI to detect the most habitual negative sources.

It could happen.

For about the last year, about the only time I log in is to upvote somebody, and usually a while after I read their message. It can bug me for some time when it's one where I just can't settle for them being downvoted, or alternatively some upvotes are never enough.

Once logged in the sky can be the limit on my own comments sometimes, as I've mentioned before I guess all I have ever done is now known as responding to prompts.

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#187

Post by [deleted] »

tuveson wrote: post #21
Xenoamorphous wrote: post #17

Kinda tangential but in the advent of AI I feel like there won’t be a niche for “handcrafted software”. When quartz watches came up the makers of mechanical watches struggled. Quartz watches are cheaper, more accurate in many cases and servicing is usually restricted to replacing a battery. However some people appreciate a good mechanical watch (and the status symbol aspect of course) and nowadays the mechanical watc…

Or maybe it's like someone saying homecooked meals and professional chefs are outdated because McDonalds exists. Homecooked meals are cheaper and healthier, and professional chefs still make better food. I don't think McDonalds is about to disappear, but I'm pretty sure those other categories aren't about to become obsolete any time soon.

[deleted]

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#188

Post by pdmccormick »

nicbou wrote: post #124
frutiger wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He started writing his stories long before he was a Professor. It was while he was a young man fighting in the First World War.

Right, which works great if your daytime job is fighting in the trenches, but maybe less so if your only opportunity is software development or other mentally exhausting job.

Bravo lol

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#189

Post by matheusmoreira »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #164
Yokohiii wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird that this thread argues to keep the fun in hobby projects and you ask for the exact opposite.

Fun hobby project with the option to change that if someone offers a big enough bag of money.

Yeah. That option is always on the table.

Re: Craft software that makes people feel something

#190

Post by rglynn »

baxtr wrote: post #159
Schlagbohrer wrote: post #144

"So, I woke up today. Got my coffee, family went to sleep, and I have a free afternoon." What kind of schedule or different timezone does this author have with their family? I am trying to imagine a family that either goes to bed in the early afternoon or a person who wakes up in the evening to start their day.

That is weird enough. But also the fact that he seems to be celebrating that is odd. Avoiding to spend time with your family shouldn’t be something you enjoy.

Have you had children?
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