John Hooks

From time to time we get criticized for making "yet another to-do list" product. Or a chat product. Or a messaging product. Or something we've kinda sorta already made before, just in a different form, combination, or approach. "How about something else? How about something bigger? How about something completely different?" @dhh even reflected on it personally in his recent @lexfridman interview: QUOTING--- We think of Elon as finding great talent, and I’m sure he is also good at that, but I also think that this beacon of the mission. We’re going to fucking Mars, we’re going to transform transportation into using electricity, we’re going to cover the earth in internet is so grand that there are days where I wake up and go like, “What the fuck am I doing with these to-do lists?” Like, “Jesus, should I go sign up for something like that?” --- So it's not just other people levying the charge — it's us too! I've given it similar time and similar thought. But then I step outside tech for a moment, ground myself in other professions, and realize how odd it would be to ask the same kind of question to a knife maker. "Hey master bladesmith, you’ve made a dozen knives this year. Same as last year. Same as the last 20. If you love metal so much, why not help build a battleship? Think of all that metal!" Or a cabinet maker. "Hey, ok I get it — you take raw wood and you turn it into beautiful furniture. Again and again and again. Don't you think a wood addict like you should consider getting into forestry? Imagine!" That would be a ridiculous line of questioning. So why is it persuasive in tech? I think part of it is that we're talking about software. An endlessly malleable medium that can truly be anything. With no conceptual limits, it’s easy to think you should keep expanding. But why? There's nothing at all wrong with honing in, developing your craft, making variations of things you're good at, and getting better each time. Nothing small about it. Nothing unfulfilling about it. So instead of looking sideways at what others are building — or upward toward the mythical “next level” — we focus ahead on what we're good at. We like to make useful, straightforward things we need. Specific tools and familiar ingredients combined in different ratios, different molds, for different purposes. Like a baker working from the same tight set of pantry ingredients to make a hundred distinct recipes. You wouldn't turn to them and say "enough with the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, and eggs already!" Getting the same few things right in different ways is a career's worth of work.