@Aidan Cunniffe, @Dylan Lederle-Ensign, @njbotkin, @Matt, @pbiggar, @shalabh .. looking forward to your explanations.. 😄 I know it'll be in the introductions channel, but maybe a couple of words here?

Haha good catch! I am working on a history of early software engineering / programming practices (c 1947-1959 ish) from the Whirlwind / SAGE project. I like thinking about the future and past of programming at the same time.

Haha I love that this was an option on the poll. I spent 5 years trying to build a commercially viable visual programming environment (dropsource.com). Eventually I came to the conclusion that code is a damn good representation (https://aidancunniffe.com/why-programming-is-hard-to-fundamentally-improve-4101612d4ad9). I’m focusing on building a smart programming assistant that can help with the dirty and repetitive parts of code so we can have the best of both worlds. It’s changed a lot since we went through YC this summer but I’m excited to show some updates in early ‘19

Good call. I missed the introductions channel, I just posted a little thingamajig there.

Honestly I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm disappointed with the current state of affairs across many aspects in the field of computing and programming. At this point I'm just working through ideas - reading, thinking, discussing and writing. My vague/broad goal is to find "fundamental ideas and powerful abstractions to organize, program and use computer systems." Some of my thoughts are posted here: shalabh.com/programmable-systems/

I too am frustrated with the current state of affairs (especially how much “running in place” is required to keep a user-facing program working over the course of years). Right now I’m studying long term data storage as one angle into this, and David Rosenthal’s blog has been very interesting in that respect: https://blog.dshr.org/