Claim◆Audio · 23:03 — 24:33
When you can lift up the level of expectation to the point where the past seems obvious and that it's just not something we have to think about anymore, that is true progress.
DHH defines progress as the point where past innovations become so obvious that nobody thinks about them anymore, using Rails' famous 15-minute blog video as an example of something that was groundbreaking then but is now expected. ✦ AI generated
David Heinemeier Hansson · The Changelog · 2015-03-06 · original ↗
plays this moment only · 23:03 — 24:33
Elicited by
“How do you like being that Rails is known for this video?”
I think it's great. I think it's even greater that people don't even realize it today. That to me is true progress. When you can lift up the level of expectation to the point where the past seems obvious and that it's just not something we have to think about anymore. These days, of course, a new open source framework or library should have a slick marketing page. Of course, it should have advocacy. These things were not true at that point. But now they are, and the world is a better place, in my opinion, for it.
verbatim transcript · starts at 23:03
- ·Progress is when past breakthroughs seem obvious today
- ·People don't even realize how far things have come
- ·The goal is to never have to think about it again
- ·Rails' demo was groundbreaking in its era
- ·Good marketing & docs are now table stakes
- ·Raising expectations makes the past look trivial
Around this claim
This moment responds to
gives example → Rails came with a set of defaults, but you're free to substitute; the Rails tent is large enough to fit people who want to build client-side MVC, because we share far more than we differ.David Heinemeier Hansson · The Changelogexplains mechanism → The web application is a pretty well-defined space — it follows a template form — and the more your application is like everyone else's, the higher level tools you can benefit from.David Heinemeier Hansson · The Changelogextends → Scientific bottlenecks form precisely where prior methods and heuristics stop applying, since researchers already exploit whatever has worked before — so genuine breakthroughs require many people pursuing different unproven approaches rather than a single reliable process.Michael Nielsen · Dwarkesh Podcastsupports → Rails has never been in a better position regarding code, community, and leadership — broader, more diverse, and more engaged than ever.David Heinemeier Hansson · The Changelogsupports → An invention isn't an innovation until it changes behavior.Rory Sutherland · My First Million