https://jameshunt.us

On Creation & Criticism

In the world of Software and System Implementation, there are creators, and then there are critics.

Creators see a problem and they go build something to solve it.

Critics see that solution and poke holes in it.

Creators see a broken thing and they work up a patch to fix it.

Critics see the fix as klugey, an inexcusable hack.

Creators build the tools they need now.

Critics won't accept working, today; they want perfect, some day.

I recently showed off a preliminary version of a small side-project of mine. My hope was to get the audience excited about the prospects and maybe provide some useful feedback on featureset and direction. The core features were all there, but some aspects of the implementation were definitely lacking. The project was four days old.

One person in the audience kept laughing about the name, adding syllables until it sounded like a certain deadly viral outbreak. Someone else wanted to know why I hadn't implemented features X, Y, and Z, and had I looked at <insert random library here>, because "they've already done this."

That's criticism, not creation.

It's easy to criticize. Go build something.

James (@iamjameshunt) works on the Internet, spends his weekends developing new and interesting bits of software and his nights trying to make sense of research papers.

Currently exploring Kubernetes, as both a floor wax and a dessert topping.