Oxide Computer’s Bryan Cantrill on the Importance of Toolmaking

2 years ago thenewstack.io

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Tools made during development can serve a wider purpose than the immediate problem they address because if it’s a problem for one, it’s potentially a problem for many. So spend time making tools says https://oxide.computer/ co-founder and Chief Technology Officer https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-cantrill-b6a1/, in his 2022 P99 Conference talk “Sharpening the Axe: The Primacy of Toolmaking.” Yet, due to an “unseen, unknowable payoff,” Cantrill explained that some people continue compare time spent on toolmaking to “stealing time.”

Well, “payoff is at a distance but the cost is immediate,” is how Cantrill describes the stealing time feeling toolmaking conjures.

There was a general purpose to this tool and Unix’s utility far outweighed the artifacts it was creating.

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