On the Drupal development list today, someone was saying something about some thing (it's not important to my point) and they said, kind of off-hand, "open source works based on 'scratch your own itch'."
Wow! I realize that's obvious, but that's a great way to say it. After reading it I kept saying it over and over. It made me think of Zed Shaw's work on Vellum and how Linus got things started with Linux (he wanted Unix to run with his processor, hence Linus's Unix). It's the reason Paul Graham did Arc, and it's the reason that Woz created the first PC. It wasn't about venture capital and startups. It was about scratching an itch.
P.S. If you haven't read iWoz, I recommend it. Seriously. It's good. The style is completely in Woz's voice, and it's got a good mix of pranks and computer history. He's a genius. (And I don't own, nor do I plan on owning, any Apple computers. He's just really a genius.)
Wow! I realize that's obvious, but that's a great way to say it. After reading it I kept saying it over and over. It made me think of Zed Shaw's work on Vellum and how Linus got things started with Linux (he wanted Unix to run with his processor, hence Linus's Unix). It's the reason Paul Graham did Arc, and it's the reason that Woz created the first PC. It wasn't about venture capital and startups. It was about scratching an itch.
P.S. If you haven't read iWoz, I recommend it. Seriously. It's good. The style is completely in Woz's voice, and it's got a good mix of pranks and computer history. He's a genius. (And I don't own, nor do I plan on owning, any Apple computers. He's just really a genius.)
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