Dear Econolite,
I have come to the conclusion that the best thing for me would be to seek employment elsewhere. I have secured that employment, and I am writing to inform you of my resignation. My last day will be Friday, October 13th.
It wouldn't be fair to say that you have nothing left to teach me, there's a lot that I don't know. But when I think about the things you're likely to teach, I don't think they're the kind of things that I want to learn, so I've gone in search of new teachers. In the spirit of giving useful feedback, I want to take a couple paragraphs to explain why I feel this way.
I'm bothered by something that is implicit in most of what we do, which is the assumption that information can be owned. Building software under this assumption means introducing design constraints that have nothing to do with solving the user’s problems. As an eventual recipient of taxpayer money, I've always felt uneasy about the fact that we don't share our code with the people who have the problems that it claims to solve. I don’t want to worry about those extra constraints anymore--I want to focus totally on solving a problem, and I want to share all of my work with anybody who has that problem.
Also, while I worked on Sky I found that I was learning new and useful things at a remarkable pace, but as soon as I returned to the proprietary ecosystem that we embrace here, the insights slowed down. It was then that I realized that we are on the opposite side of the very same problem: our tools are keeping secrets from us just in exactly the same ways that our products keep secrets from our users. Everything we’re involved with runs on just enough black magic to discourage people from looking under the hood. This has a problematic effect on how we think about software as an organization, and I don't think I can fight that effect much longer, which is why I'm leaving.
There are several individuals in your ranks that I will miss working with. Daniel's brilliance, Paul's wisdom, and Eric's inspiration have all been positive influences that I'm going to be hard pressed to find elsewhere. My greatest regret in this decision is that I might be putting these people in a difficult position. My plan had been to wait a few more months and really put a bow on Sky before I left. I'm real sorry guys: opportunity's knock came early.
Despite these complaints, learning and growth that did happen, friendships were formed, and perspectives were gained. For these things I am truly grateful.
M@