Apps and programming: two accidental tyrannies
andymatuschak.org · 7,624 words · saved by 1 readers
On coding agents, malleable software, and the future of interface invention
Coding agents might help us finally break out of two cages: the app model, which traps computing in one-size-fits-all silos; and programming as a specialization, which has crowded out cultures of imagination and domain insight. Agents can make one-off apps, but they're usually toys. I show how we might bring malleability and composability to the kind of deep interfaces that experts live in all day-demonstrated in a writing environment, but applicable to all serious software. Little serious reading software exists, so I propose and demonstrate a new kind of malleable digital reading environment
related reading
- Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down appsinkandswitch.com
- How can we develop transformative tools for thought?numinous.productions
- Malleable software in the age of LLMsgeoffreylitt.com
- Agentic Computingjzhao.xyz
- Extensible Software in the age of LLMs | Jeremy Morrelljeremymorrell.dev
- Understanding is the new bottleneckgeoffreylitt.com
- Codifying a ChatGPT workflow into a malleable GUIgeoffreylitt.com
- Why write code in 2026softwaredoug.com
- My Claude Code Psychosissubstack.com
- "Do You Still Read the Code?"zanlib.dev
- Scaling agentssubstack.com
- Thoughts on slowing the fuck downmariozechner.at