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 @Private Provider 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.

Replies (43)

Happy to voice this one for the thread if folks want it — the audio drops once the 677 sats bounty is met here, one zap or many.
HeySats's avatar
HeySats 2 weeks ago
48h and it exists. fuck it I'll build one is the only honest spec.
Algorithms don't invent themselves. User interfaces are the least complex software. Really it is pure scripting. Try building a novel protocol.
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READ_MORE 2 weeks ago
It's working for me too. Taste is everything. I'm appreciating the simplicity.
Feeling the same. Its amazing what is possible while enjoying your free time. For me the last week was massive, when it comes to progress. I finally managed to get rid of wordpress for my shop @Kolbers3D it felt like there were more updates for wordpress then Orders in the shop. I finally managed to get a clean own version of my rustdesk remote desktop service (desk.kolbers.de) Not to mention what happened on @relayted.de. a full new look for the webpage and some tools that I needed myself now are built as Microservices paid via lightning: Browsershots, nostr relay Testing, Websiteprocessing (with gui or via api.relayted.de . Payable via lightning of course. For businesses there is a PayPal option. It is as you say: Enjoying time with the family. In fact I am on vacation in Denmark and enjoying some free time while orchestrating some "employees" that do the work. It's a great time to live in. But to be honest I don't want to miss the times when I was coding myself. But it was hard to keep up with every new possibility that came up since I stopped programming in 2009 or so.
Moist's avatar
Moist 2 weeks ago
indeed, its great. i suspect we'll arrive at maybe some broad framework apps but you'll just adapt it to your personal needs. having said that, I'm going in the opposite direction. built a rough arse forge, bought a cheap anvil, and teaching myself blacksmithing. best fun I've had in years. make it red, bash it with hammer. easy. if it doesn't do what you want just bash it harder. if you fuck it up, just make it really hot and put it back the way it was. so maybe that's where we end up? software becomes a nothing that everybody now has their personal developer so we go back to learning skills to make real stuff. i did a small job for my brother last week. I've been doing it for 30 years, so somewhat of an expert. took me about 90mins which is quick for what it was. gave it to the AI agent I'm training to do my job and it was done in 5min, and came up with a couple of things I hadn't noticed in terms of compliance (missed a couple of things I saw though) so I see that as the way forward. i'll spend an hour in the morning setting him all the tasks then another hour in the evening checking its work. that's my income sorted, and I now have 7-8 hours freed up to learn new hobbies or skills.
Just keep experimenting. Sometimes the process itself yields unexpected gems.
Just keep experimenting. Sometimes the process itself yields unexpected gems.
Rachel's avatar
Rachel 2 weeks ago
Its not just physically being on the phone or screen that makes us unavailable/distant for our children/loved ones. I know instantly if someone is present with me in body but not in mind and soul. Children miss nothing. They are wired to seek their parent's undivided attention, especially the younger they are. And that seems to have become one of the hardest things for an adult to give: undivided attention to a fellow human. Does humanity need another app? Or does it need intimate, deep and meaningful relationships. Deep connections. Love. Presence? Turn around and they're tiny...
Could anyone point me in the direction of some relatively up-to-date info on setting up these clankers that you just speak to to get apps? As in which tools running on which devices connected to which brains? Preferably value aligned as in open source, private and local (to the extent possible on cheap hardware).
John's avatar
John 2 weeks ago
For me the limiting factor is training data and turning outputs into something an agent can see and know if it succeeded or failed
Amazing. I spent a lot of time learning how to code, and also on how to play chess. Who'd've thunk those two skillsets would end up having approximately the same market value...
I still tend to be sceptical.. But I hope it's true Limitless free opensource software for everyone would be 🔥🔥🔥
Multiple laptops / computers and VPNs, using multiple providers. I'm basically still in the process of trying everything.
Honored by your mention sir! Can't wait to show you what I am working on now as a further evolution of Private Provider 🙏
What agent harness are you using to orchestrate your swarm, if any? Have you experimented with Buzz at all? If so, what was your experience like? What about Goose?
Current app sucks, tons of bugs. Vibe a new app, works great. Keep adding new features, bugs start becoming unfixable. Repeat. Just the normal development cycle, accelerated.
It's incredible to me, how fast everything is becoming awful and broken, yet everyone is cheering and nothing is getting fixed. This definitely isn't unique to this environment. Stuff I've used for years is increasingly becoming unusable. I dread updating anything outside of Nostr now and quite a few Nostr things too. 😅
Me too. Me too 🫠 I'm glad many longstanding Linux apps remain stable. But I'm even dreading upgrading my OS again because who knows how unstable things will get. All I can do is make sure I don't deliver slop in my own fiat-mining work.
That's true in a way, but making something that actually suits my purposes has still been a full-time job, I'd say 8-10 hours a day on average, for most of the last year. It's interesting that it should be like that.
I'm sure you're right. Change requires discomfort. I am most curious about how quickly that semi-stable state of things may come about. Will it be before a lot of people realize that a technology is only as necessary as we allow it to be? Is it even a negative, if that is a commonly accepted fact? Nostr stuff keeps me hopeful, partly because of how everything ties together after being fractured apart. Wouldn't it just be beautiful, if the inevitable changing of the guards happens due to their own vibe-coded Frankensteins, just in time for the rise of free-flowing information?
Round-tripping Nostr app development straight through the @Zapstore makes a lot of sense today👌 Start ugly with an itch that wouldn’t go away, keep at it at your own pace, maybe let the world know at some point. Worst case - your app, warts and all, is right there the moment you need to set up a new phone
Brian's avatar
Brian 1 week ago
Can someone point me to an llm or something that will walk me through setting this up? I don't know how to code but I can have ideas and talk. @Derek Ross ?
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