An App Can Be a Home-Cooked Meal  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source]] - Full Title: An App Can Be a Home-Cooked Meal - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/a6769537-9b36-4b51-810b-2820e725aafe ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Coding as Home-Cooked Meal** - Coding can be like cooking, making software personal and meaningful rather than commercially driven. - Robin Sloan's family messaging app illustrates software serving a small, specific community with autonomy. Transcript: Jerod Santo App can be a home-cooked meal. This post by Robin Sloan was originally penned in February of 2020, but I'm sharing it now because this new wave of Vibe Coding Tools makes it even more true now than when he wrote it. Quote, I made a messaging app for and with my family. It is ruthlessly simple. We love it. No one else will ever use it. I wanted to share a few notes about how and why I made it, both to A, offer a nudge to anyone else considering a similar project, and B, suggest something a little larger about software. That something a little larger about software that he's referring to is that the learn to code movement was mostly about market value, but the learn to cook movement almost never is. Robin suggests that if we think of coding more like cooking, we can use software to make our little world a better place. Quote, this messaging app I built for and with my family, it won't change unless we want it to change. There will be no sudden redesign, no flood of ads, no pivot to chase a user base inscrutable to us. It might go away at some point, but that will be our decision. What is this feeling? Independence? Security? Sovereignty? Is it simply the feeling of being home? End ([Time 0:00:47](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8deb074f-90e8-4798-b2cf-5485fc452ebe)) - **Google's AI Talent Hiring Tactic** - Google's hiring of Windsurf founders avoids acquisition complexities, benefiting them with direct compensation. - This trend of hiring key AI talent over acquisitions is becoming common among tech giants. Transcript: Jerod Santo You thought OpenAI was buying Windsurf for buku bucks, you were once right, but now you're wrong. That deal is off. Instead, Google is hiring CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some of Windsurf's R&D employees for their DeepMind team. Not an acquisition, just hiring them for, yes, Buku Bucks. This seems like a great deal for Google. It's cleaner than an acquisition in almost every way. Seems like a great deal for Windsurf's founders. They got a large portion of those buku bucks. But it seems like a raw deal for the remaining Windsurf employees who have equity and or options in the company. And Google isn't alone. Microsoft and Meta have made similar moves recently. ([Time 0:02:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e9834959-336c-4370-baf9-15665a58ccf8)) - **Intel's Decline and Industry Shift** - Intel's fall in semiconductor ranks is stark, no longer in the top 10 and facing huge losses. - Contrastingly, NVIDIA's market cap is now 40 times larger, highlighting rapid industry shifts. Transcript: Jerod Santo Too late for Intel. It's difficult to fathom how fast and hard Intel has fallen from the top of the semiconductor world. Here's a report from the mouth of new CEO Lip Bu Tan. Quote, On training, I think it's too late for us. 20, 30 years ago, we were really the leader. Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies. End quote. Yikes. They've already laid off thousands of employees around the world and their costs continue to explode due to high R&D spending. Plus they faced a $16 billion loss in quarter three of last year. To put Intel's fall in perspective, there was a day when they were considering acquiring NVIDIA for $20 billion. Today, NVIDIA's market cap is 40 times the size of Intel's. ([Time 0:03:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ae6ba70d-e5db-4a64-a494-89b42efe65df)) - **Allow AI Adoption Flexibility** - Stop forcing AI tools on engineers; instead, give time to explore and adopt tools at their own pace. - Share what works and respect individual adaptation to new technologies for better integration. Transcript: Jerod Santo Anton Zadis imploring people in leadership roles to stop forcing AI on their engineers. Quote, I'm definitely not saying that we should ignore these tools. There are engineers who are old fashioned and resist without giving it a real chance. You do have a responsibility to help your team adapt to the new world and it is a new world, but there are so end quote. I couldn't agree more. Here's a few better ways that Anton suggests. One, give time to explore. Two, share what worked in your org. And three, give people time to adopt it their way. ([Time 0:05:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0d0b3edf-c215-4125-8ac7-877e7323757f)) - **Ten-Year Daily Running Streak** - Adrien Fergari ran every day for 10 years, tracking it extensively with data visualizations. - The journey grew from a few days to a decade, supported by his wife, showing remarkable commitment. Transcript: Jerod Santo Adrian Fergheri went on a run on July 11th of 2015 and every single day since. It started like many Streaks start with small ambitions. Quote, I headed out on a run on a Tuesday, then did another one the next day, and the day after, and I took the Friday off. When I woke up on July 11th, 2015, I remember thinking I could have done four days in a row. So I set out to try and do that. And then four days turned into a week, then a month, then two, then six, then a year, and here I am, 10 years later, end quote. Adrian didn't merely run every day. He tracked his running via Strava and documented his runs, creating compelling visualizations of his annual mileage, workout activity by time of day, treadmill versus outdoor distributions, Pace, heart zone rates, weather conditions, states, countries, and continents visited, you name it. On the overall impact of running, Adrian says, quote, running has changed my life and I hope I'll still keep this going for another decade. I've been extremely lucky to have had the support of my wonderful wife, Molly, through this journey, and I couldn't have done it without her patience. How many times has she heard me say, I'll be back in a few in the mornings, end quote. That's ([Time 0:06:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b2ff9a09-fcef-4673-a599-1b8205686766))