(This is a snapshot of my old weblog. New posts and selected republished essays can be found at raganwald.com.)
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Delicious Monster
There's a plant that grows in the rain forests of tropical america known colloquially as “The Swiss Cheese Plant”; its Latin name is Monstera deliciosa — Delicious Monster.
A young plant starts as just a handful of simple verdant leaves, but as it grows to its full thirty feet its leaves become more and more lacy and ornate. If treated properly, the plant will then flower with huge blooms, which create a very rare fruit that taste like mixed pineapples and bananas. We believe that delicious software, like the delicious monster, starts as something simple and beautiful: an idea to simplify your life, to help you more easily accomplish something you need to do. The idea is embellished as it matures, without losing sight of the core beauty that inspired it. Delicious software should be deep and focused, so every feature you want to use is understandable and anticipates what you actually want to do; you should find yourself smiling at its added and unexpected beauty, like you would at the monster's flowers. And the fruits of your efforts should make your life just a touch sweeter. We grow delicious software. Simple and beautiful with surprises and detail that you would never expect from software. It's delicious and it makes you smile. It brings your computer to life and into your life.
There's a plant that grows in the rain forests of tropical america known colloquially as “The Swiss Cheese Plant”; its Latin name is Monstera deliciosa — Delicious Monster.
A young plant starts as just a handful of simple verdant leaves, but as it grows to its full thirty feet its leaves become more and more lacy and ornate. If treated properly, the plant will then flower with huge blooms, which create a very rare fruit that taste like mixed pineapples and bananas. We believe that delicious software, like the delicious monster, starts as something simple and beautiful: an idea to simplify your life, to help you more easily accomplish something you need to do. The idea is embellished as it matures, without losing sight of the core beauty that inspired it. Delicious software should be deep and focused, so every feature you want to use is understandable and anticipates what you actually want to do; you should find yourself smiling at its added and unexpected beauty, like you would at the monster's flowers. And the fruits of your efforts should make your life just a touch sweeter. We grow delicious software. Simple and beautiful with surprises and detail that you would never expect from software. It's delicious and it makes you smile. It brings your computer to life and into your life.
"I believe the best software is written by small groups of people who have both passion and vision. Passion is easy to define; you care so deeply about something that it wounds you if it's done poorly."
--Will Shipley, co-founder
"I realized that if I was going to create good software, the way I thought it should be done, I was going to have to do it at a company that I was in charge of."
--Mike Matas, co-founder
