#2530U

There is a certain hacker-y, diy aesthetic in websites and software that I tend to like. Stuff like this usually feels like it’s plaintext, even when it’s not actually. The design is simple and feels like a basic text file but the UX is good and modern, just not the “modern” that tends to mean gimmicky and bandwagony.

I wonder how I could go about making a living working with this type of design and software, but for “normal” people, not just developer and sysadmin and geeky types. I love geeky types, but I’m not sufficiently geeky to feel really at home in that world. I can speak the language, but it’s not my native tounge.

I do think that the remedy for the highly polished, psychologically tuned exploitation machines that are modern phones and computers and apps is this type of diy, hacker ethos. The design, the aesthetic is a part of that, and I think an important part. Design can manifest the philosophy behind software, so something that looks plaintext, does work in a simple, robust way with plaintext files and folders (ala Unix/Posix) but has a well thought out, considered UX for people who aren’t willing to learn the weird logic of computers to use them is the way to go.
I hope at some point I’ll find a way to start working with this type of stuff, it feels more authentic to me rather than the modern polish and enterprise complexity.

This is the future of personal computing, if we make it. I want to make it.

Well, anyways.