Jamie Zawinski wrote up a conversation that he had with Nat about what would eventually become Hula. There are some quotes you'd expect from anything writen by Jamie like:
He looked at me like I'd just kicked his puppy.
But also some real insight into what people really want with software. People want software to solve their problems, to make thier life easier, not something with buzz words or features.
If you want to do something that's going to change the world, build software that people want to use instead of software that managers want to buy.
I think what is particularly insightful here is also how software has changed. It is more about "enabling people to work together" rather than "adding features to the word processor".
That got me a look like I had just sprouted a third head, but bear with me, because I think that it's not only crude but insightful. "How will this software get my users laid" should be on the minds of anyone writing social software (and these days, almost all software is social software).
This is why projects like Inkboard are important. Jabber is important. Wikis are important. And, I think that it also captures the difference between Microsoft and Apple: Apple makes products that people love, Microsoft makes products that managers want to buy.
posted Feb 18, 2005 | permanent link
