ryanwold.net - Civic Tech, Bitcoin, and Open Government Innovation

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kind of an exploration of a problem.

this is a bitch. this is a rant.

i want better tools.
no i want a better developer experience.
i want a closer connection with what i build.
crafting code is a great brain exercise. there's lots to know,
lots to understand.

i've acquired a bit of experience and learnings from working
with technology for the last 12years.

people want outcomes.

we work through small outputs.

connecting outputs to outcomes is the amount of
traction, value, an agency can generate amongst
a group of individuals.

Development tools, frameworks, patterns, and folders of code
running on distributed virtual infrastructure in a rack in a building.Somewhere.
Hidden behind the syntax, the abstractions way heavy.
I WANT TO FEEL WHAT I CREATE.

I'm sensitive to the notion of instant gratification.
And, I've got to admit I yearn for instant gratification.
It may be embarrasingly close to mind state achieved while absorbed in a video game. (Insert your Flow reference)

Press a button. Press multiple buttons.
Crazy ass complex combinations.
Street Fighter was about as far as I got.
But modern gamers have exceeded this by far.

And then along came Rails. and meta programming become widely known.
And simplicity became valuable. (Ruby)
And Javascript came along, when speed became valueable. (Node)
And speed forced simplicity (Functional programming)
And functional design came. (Bootstrap)

And, if you're older than 30, you know can name the generation of things that came before this.

Again. more Layers.

And even with the "Helpful" layers.  There is magic.

Sometimes too much.

WAT!

And, recently, I've been learning Ember.
Which is what inspired this note.
There is magic going on. It is powerful, and elegant.
And if you need to read the manual, it's a great one.
But the fact that there's a manual at all hints at something deeper.
The most helpful things I found were diagrams in the docs and
diagrams people sketched and posted in various places.
(POST MINE HERE)
Programming is not usable. At least not this type.
It is not intuitive, nor should or could it be wholly so.
But, while our tools are great, for the fact they exist at all,
there is something more fundamental at work.

Creations.
Reactions.
Patterns.
Behaviors.
Outcomes.

and then there's me.

An entry