Thread by @b0rk

I'm working on a talk called "build impossible things" about writing a program (rbspy!!) that was outside of my comfort zone. so here's a series of myths about building ambitious-for-you software!

Myth 1: "Ruby has existed for like 20 years. If it were a good idea someone would have done it already."
Reality: Not that many people actually work on Ruby profilers! Those people have different priorities and interests than me!

Myth 2: To build innovative software you have to already be an expert
Reality: Doing a survey of how all existing Ruby/Python profilers worked helped me a LOT to understand the current state of the art and what I could contribute

Myth 3: You should always use tools you're already comfortable with
Reality: In this case, it was really important for me to invest in learning some new-to-me tools (Rust!!)

Myth 4: to build open source software you have to code a lot on the weekends / after work

(I basically don't code on the weekend. Instead, I took time off work to do my project!)

I'm still working on these ideas so I'd love to hear what has helped you to build ambitious software!

I want to hear more about how you build software that is new / different / ambitious without like "well step 1 is be a wizard genius with infinite time" :)

maybe step 1 is to realize "ok i think I care way more about this thing than a lot of other people"?

MYTH 5: Your new ambitious project shouldn't be messy and weird internally
Reality: Useful software is often really messy and weird!!! (reading the gdb source code makes me so happy there are so many weird things!)

Myth 6: You need a lot of time to build something ambitious
Reality: I built the original rbspy prototype in a week!! It only worked on my laptop but it worked and I was so proud of myself :D