The Speed of Thought

There are two types of software.

Those that you choose to use, and those that your boss chooses for you.

hmm

The “only way to do it” is sometimes painful. But if there are dollars to be made between those button clicks and some frustration, I will happily click them. Hopefully in the right order.

If I have a choice though, I will choose the program that keeps me in the “zone” for as long as possible. Every second I feel like I am waiting on the machine; is one more second I’m likely to change tasks or get distracted from what I’m actually in your program for.

There is some number… of millisecond lag tolerance. This is the most important metric and a balancing act with the value you are creating. How much of the program’s feature plays in your cash generating mechanisms? How long am I willing to wait? Remember I’m not just a user of a novel feature in your app. It is part of an entire flow that you will never see.

In the craft of turning dirt to dollars, I focus mostly on Electronic Design Automation (EDA). The vast amount of tooling surrounding modern Semi-Conductors and PCBs are staggering (and expensive). Unifying these tools for the usage of mere mortals has been my task for the past 5 years.

To me the task of the next 10 years is to optimize this flow to take seconds or minutes… Rather than years. Who will be a blackbox and who will be sherlocked?