Flavors of Ambition

There's a post from Dan Luu that is currently going around titled "We should be more ambitious with the software we build". I really like the sentiment. I believe that we could all do with pushing a little further than we think we're capable, especially when putting things out into the world.

In parallel I have noticed that there are now lots of people building lots of things. Some of those things are very big and full of features. In some ways that makes them ambitious but I think there are many equally interesting ways to push our ambition.

Given the week the software world has had, we could aim to be ambitiously more secure. Unhackable.

Given the default of most models is more code, we could aim to solve the problems with fewer features.

Given how hard it is to find well priced RAM and other computer hardware, we could aim to be significantly more resource efficient.

All of these options are there for the taking. Your ambition needn't be aiming for first in the world to do something. It doesn't have to win market share.

I think Luu's post covers plenty of examples of different types of ambition for those that take the time to read it. This post was seeded from reading it and then seeing the current zeitgeist of ambition being more and more features packed into software that quickly becomes a quagmire of user experiences and ideas that depart from the original intent.

Perhaps lastly, and I've said it before in other ways, we can also aim to be more ambitious in the amount of care we pour into what we build. In a world filled with more and more content of every description there's something to be said about taking the time to pour your heart into something.