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MaddieM4MaddieM4@raphus.social
Oct 20, 2026, 2:40 AM
What we're seeing in LOSS (Libertarian Open Source Software) is that we built an empire on that luck, which seems impossible until you realize all the survivor's bias. Most projects were useful only to the author, or nobody at all. But there were so goddamned many of them, the barrier to entry was so low, that some of them happened to be aligned with other people, and then you end up with projects becoming popular, and eventually critical infrastructure, where the duty of care downstream is given belated importance by someone who never fostered it as a skill, and who is also worn down by a vocal minority of users bringing their entitlement to the ticket tracker.
And it all feels so different than making a cool tool for your mom, right?
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Replies

MaddieM4MaddieM4@raphus.social
Oct 20, 2026, 2:46 AM
So you literally make better software if you think like this from day one, you actively use your creativity and imagination to scheme how you can make other people's lives better as the end goal that makes any of this matter. It's a head start. And you don't end up pulling a Linus Torvalds later, or even a Tridge.
I do think software as activism is higher effort up front. But it pays off pretty much continuously from there, often reducing your effort while increasing your positive impact. It's very mutual. One of my big things I think about lately is how to make software that requires little to no maintenance - in the ideal case, permanent - so that I can spread myself to a wider scope long-term. I can't do that if I'm firefighting all the time! Which - you see now *how* it makes you better, as a worked example, right?
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MaddieM4MaddieM4@raphus.social
Oct 20, 2026, 2:57 AM
That's about all the brain I had left for today. Thanks to @401matthall for the inciting conversation that led me to this train of thought, and to @ireneista and @onepict and @futurebird and my little sibling and so many others I could never exhaustively name for being good spiritual influences on me. I consider myself very fortunate to be in that caliber of company, and I'm not shy to say so.
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