> imho the best software is written to scratch a personal itch. Not to appease this customer. Not for other humans. This statement shows you partially understa

> imho the best software is written to scratch a personal itch. Not to appease this customer. Not for other humans. This statement shows you partially understand, but don't understand the why. You recognize that people working on software for things they truly care about can write better more successful software, but you miss the final step of why that software is more successful. The reason why Linus can write such great software for software engineers is because he is a software engineer. Fundamentally the software you love is successful for other people, it is for other people and because your idols are one of those people part of that group, they understand it as well as anyone. Linux was made for passionate hobbyist programmers by a passionate hobbyist programmer. And because it is made for those people, and met their needs perfectly is why it caught on. The reason it met their needs is because Linus understood their needs, because he shared them. That's the key piece - that great software is written by completely meeting users needs. The easiest way to understand and meet other people's needs is by sharing them. That's the final step of it. Fundamentally software becomes successful by meeting other people's needs. Anything else that doesn't, you've never heard of.