@Techmeme@techhub.social2026-01-25 22:45:35
Many AI founders now find it necessary to raise at valuations requiring absolute domination of the field; Brex, once valued at $12B, shows the downsides of this (Jason Lemkin/SaaStr)
https://www.saastr.com/brex-and-the-pros-and-cons-of-hubristic-fundraising/
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2026-02-26 19:03:43
…crucially, I’d argue that (2) is •not• the only cause of (1): narrowing the problem space was not the only thing Hypercard did that lowered the barrier to entry. There have been other tools that also aggressively narrowed the problem space yet did not catch on the way Hypercard did.
Narrowing the class of problems is •part• of Hypercard’s barrier-removing success, to be sure! For example, I mentioned UI layout upthread. Hypercard stacks aren’t resizable. Layout involved absolute positioning, end of story (mostly).
@frankstohl@mastodon.social2026-03-26 12:07:08
Großzügiges Angebot: Markus Söder erklärt sich bereit, gestrandeten Wal aufzuessen
https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/hVR569XapuSB7jUa0-YcT4tT_UQUxJ59
@bogo@hapyyr.com2026-02-25 15:50:20
The error of my life
@digitalnaiv@mastodon.social2026-01-26 07:51:36
Digitale Souveränität wird gern beschworen, doch "Souveräne Clouds“ der Hyperscaler bleiben dem US-Recht unterworfen. Bezahlen mit Wero statt US-Diensten, Open Source statt Lock-in. Persönliche Entscheidungen ersetzen keine Politik – aber sie zeigen, dass Alternativen existieren #Kuratiert.
@Techmeme@techhub.social2026-01-26 13:01:38
TSMC's conservative capex approach is resulting in supply-demand imbalances and foregone revenue, and hyperscalers must build up Samsung or Intel as its rivals (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
https://stratechery.com/2026/tsmc-risk/
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2026-02-26 19:00:23
Because some of the replies, while good, have wandered a bit off the rails, please consider:
1. “We should study and learn from how Hypercard lowered the barrier to entry to programming.”
2. “Hypercard or something like it would be unsuitable for many / most modern applications.”
Please note that both these things can be true (and both are in my view). Upthread I’m pushing for (1). And…
@thijs_lucas@norden.social2026-02-24 12:07:23
RE: https://social.bund.de/@HBBuergerschaft/116125496400538890
Top 3: Umsetzung des Verkehrsentwicklungsplans
Das Thema ist schon auch spannend, wenn man bedenkt, dass dem Bremer Senat in Sachen Verkehr höchstgerichtlich nachgewiesen wurde, da…
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2026-02-26 19:08:44
Still, there are some other things Hypercard did we’d do well to study, even with full-scale tools. Off the top of my head:
- It richly rewarded unguided exploration. Unsuccessful experimentation had a way of leading to paths forward, not just dead ends.
- Much of it worked by direct manipulation: if you want the thing there, you put the thing there. (Unity and Godot both sort of kind of do some descendant of this, but not with the same discoverability and transparency.)
- There was a rich library of good starting points, modifiable examples.
- An empty but functioning new project had essentially zero boilerplate. You didn’t have to have 15 files and hundreds of lines of code to get a blank page.
- Its UI made it easy-ish for newcomers to ask “What can I do with this thing here?” Modern autocomplete and inline docs kind of sort of approximate this, but in practice only for people who already have tool expertise.
- HyperTalk (the programming language) is tricky to write (it’s a p-lang), but it’s remarkably easy to read. You can peer at it with very limited knowledge and make educated guesses about its semantics, and those guesses will be mostly correct. (HyperTalk syntax tends to get the most attention when people talk about this, I think at the expense of the other things above.)
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2026-02-26 03:19:17
Still, per the OP’s point, we should learn from what it is about vibe coding that really appeals to people.
The OP makes the case that we should find better abstractions and better idioms to fight boilerplate. Yes. And that we should look to things like Hypercard that reward inexperienced experimentation and exploration. Very very yes.
The latter part of my thread argues that we should •also• search for better solutions to the “Don’t make me decide! Just do something typical!” problem. I don’t know what that looks like, but we should take that problem more seriously.