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It's okay to make something nobody wants

zhangluyao.com

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Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#31

Post by bsnnkv »

This article resonated with me a lot and had me reflecting on my journey writing komorebi.

I started writing komorebi because I had recently migrated to Windows and was really struggling without a tiling window manager. I didn't know anything about Win32 APIs when I started, or much about Rust either, actually.

Fast forward to today, and komorebi is sitting at 35k downloads, supported by a huge Discord server, a vibrant community, and hundreds of people watching me develop it on YouTube.

I created some incredibly important and impactful systems at $dayjob some years before I started komorebi. It was at a real low point in my life where I was struggling with depression, and I still _feel_ that when I look at the codebases and interact with those systems today. I wonder if others do, too. In some ways, I'm glad that those codebases and those systems are not public for others to see for that reason.

I am however, very glad that komorebi is out for the public to see, because I built it in a place of joy, hope and serenity, and I believe that those feelings are there to be seen in both the codebase and the product.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#32

Post by yieldcrv »

Aeolun wrote: post #22
spencerflem wrote: post #12

That's not making something nobody wants - its making something one person wants a lot :) On a less happy note, there are definitely jobs I've had where I felt like nobody wanted what I was making and its kind of miserable

I have that feeling trying to improve dev practices in a shop that had none. Years of effort and we’re barely at the point my previous place was at before I even started there.

Why care? The only reason I point stuff out at my current company is because I don't want to get on a performance improvement plan because of their dumb work forecasting solutions

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#33

Post by m463 »

I see the darker side of this.

Lots of companies make things they want, but people should not want. And they let people take up the slack.

But I'm thinking of things like email - that reads people's mail. and on and on...

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#34

Post by saberience »

efitz wrote: post #6

Lately i have been wondering about the weird projects that people make- the “I built a web application framework in brainfuck” or “I built a text based bitmap image editor” or “I loaded an LLM on a Speak’n’Spell” kind of projects (I made up all of those but see similar on HN every day). I understand passion projects and the article hints that might be the reason, but I just don’t understand why people would spend suc…

Why do people play videogames? It takes up a ton of time and has no profitable output? Answer: they find it fun.

Why are you judging people doing something they enjoy? You don’t have any hobbies that aren’t all economically profitable?

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#36

Post by barrysteve »

efitz wrote: post #6

Lately i have been wondering about the weird projects that people make- the “I built a web application framework in brainfuck” or “I built a text based bitmap image editor” or “I loaded an LLM on a Speak’n’Spell” kind of projects (I made up all of those but see similar on HN every day). I understand passion projects and the article hints that might be the reason, but I just don’t understand why people would spend suc…

I would make an web app in brainfuck just for bragging rights.

Not quite as good as Rollercoaster Tycoon in Assembly.. but close.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#37

Post by nsonha »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #21
nsonha wrote: post #16

I think it's ok, great even, the urge to make something that's so strong that you do act on it. Having said a lot of people do software development for a living and they may depend on your project. So I think OSS authors do have the responsibility to word their motivation honestly, when they publish their projects.

I understand what you are saying. But open sourcing some code does not equal some kind of agreement to support people using it.

I didn’t say anything about supporting, just not to mislead people.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#38

Post by Jensson »

yieldcrv wrote: post #32
Aeolun wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have that feeling trying to improve dev practices in a shop that had none. Years of effort and we’re barely at the point my previous place was at before I even started there.

Why care? The only reason I point stuff out at my current company is because I don't want to get on a performance improvement plan because of their dumb work forecasting solutions

If he can spend time at work doing things he likes to do then why not? He could have spent that time churning out features instead, but now he got to clean up a codebase, some people like doing that sort of thing.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#39

Post by Brian_K_White »

emodendroket wrote: post #27
fourthark wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like his point is the inverse: if you don't want it, how will anyone else?

Because it solves a problem they have?

How will that happen? If I don't know anything about photography, and don't even like it much, certainly don't care about it, my photography app will be garbage.

Precisely as so many apps are garbage.

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