4 ms·

Not just game engines but pretty much everything else. Rust got good first-hand experiences with Servo in its early days. A lot of Blender features were develop

Not just game engines but pretty much everything else. Rust got good first-hand experiences with Servo in its early days. A lot of Blender features were developed in conjunction with its Open Movies.

geek_at 3y ago
Very true! When I learned PHP back in the 2000s I had a few failed attempts because I had no project. Then I wanted to make a browsergame (like galaxywars) and I have learned so much during that project. Having a goal makes learning so much easier
- harry8 3y ago
  Not so much a goal, I think OP's meaning is more along these lines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food
  - fragmede 3y ago
    Yes but it's having a goal that makes you metaphorically hungry in this analogy, otherwise we wouldn't be eating dogfood.
resonious 3y ago
Regular SaaS products also tend to suck hard due to the creators not actually using the product themselves.
dbish 3y ago
This. I firmly believe if you are making a platform or saas product for devs you need to be building an application that uses it first or in parralel even though building the platform sounds more important and higher impacting and everyone loves to sell shovels. It’s the only way to prove your platform is high value and to work out the real value. In days like today where there are a lot of folks selling shovels, I trust the platforms that use them as well far more then yet another platform with customer logos.
dom96 3y ago
This is especially true for programming languages. Which is why it drives me nuts when people complain at programming language developers when they dare use that language to develop other software.
- krisoft 3y ago
  > people complain at programming language developers when they dare use that language to develop other software Interesting. That sounds very weird. Do you have any example you could point at?
  - lifthrasiir 3y ago
    Self-hosted languages are said to be prone to overfit because that self-hosted implementation tends to be the only large application written in that language, so they converge into a similar set of features (in particular functional ones). Not necessarily bad by its own, as many features in modern languages do come from FP, but that convergence is frequently independent from the originally stated goal and ultimately lowers a probability of success.
mihaaly 3y ago
In a world of moderately prudent people the encouragement of ensuring a product is fulfilling its purpuse to the necessary extent should be unnecessary. Those making things but not trying it for the purpose should not make products for others. I feel a bit silly commenting such evidency, almost like if I was promoting the benefits of water for a fish.

Not just game engines but pretty much everything else. Rust got good first-hand experiences with Servo in its early days. A lot of Blender features were developed in conjunction with its Open Movies.

geek_at 3y ago

Very true! When I learned PHP back in the 2000s I had a few failed attempts because I had no project. Then I wanted to make a browsergame (like galaxywars) and I have learned so much during that project. Having a goal makes learning so much easier

harry8 3y ago
Not so much a goal, I think OP's meaning is more along these lines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food
- fragmede 3y ago
  Yes but it's having a goal that makes you metaphorically hungry in this analogy, otherwise we wouldn't be eating dogfood.

resonious 3y ago

Regular SaaS products also tend to suck hard due to the creators not actually using the product themselves.

dbish 3y ago

This. I firmly believe if you are making a platform or saas product for devs you need to be building an application that uses it first or in parralel even though building the platform sounds more important and higher impacting and everyone loves to sell shovels. It’s the only way to prove your platform is high value and to work out the real value. In days like today where there are a lot of folks selling shovels, I trust the platforms that use them as well far more then yet another platform with customer logos.

dom96 3y ago

This is especially true for programming languages. Which is why it drives me nuts when people complain at programming language developers when they dare use that language to develop other software.

krisoft 3y ago
> people complain at programming language developers when they dare use that language to develop other software Interesting. That sounds very weird. Do you have any example you could point at?
- lifthrasiir 3y ago
  Self-hosted languages are said to be prone to overfit because that self-hosted implementation tends to be the only large application written in that language, so they converge into a similar set of features (in particular functional ones). Not necessarily bad by its own, as many features in modern languages do come from FP, but that convergence is frequently independent from the originally stated goal and ultimately lowers a probability of success.

mihaaly 3y ago

In a world of moderately prudent people the encouragement of ensuring a product is fulfilling its purpuse to the necessary extent should be unnecessary. Those making things but not trying it for the purpose should not make products for others. I feel a bit silly commenting such evidency, almost like if I was promoting the benefits of water for a fish.