Innovation is the transformation of ideas into impact. Transforming an idea into impact is an iterative process composed of observation, conjecture, experimentation, and reflection - an application of the scientific method. Every iteration explores solutions to obstacles standing between the current state and the desired impact. In my experience, the faster and cheaper a team can iterate, the better the end product will be. I believe a key factor in moving fast is having a deep understanding of the tools being used.
I find great joy in solving complicated problems using simple tools. The process of understanding the fundamental elements of a system and then figuring out how to apply them to a real-world problem is extremely fulfilling, especially when coupled with a rapid and low-consequence feedback loop.
Software is the ideal medium for this type of problem solving; a self-contained platform created for and by humans. Unfortunately, I rarely experience that sort of creative freedom in the modern world of software development. While building software has never been easier in terms of readily available technology and knowledge, the overwhelming complexity, coupled with the inherently challenging nature of product development, makes creating quality products extremely difficult in practice.
Development is often a process of stitching together fragile, complex systems in the name of not reinventing the wheel, only to have to expand the logic of the application to work around issues and sub-optimal design choices introduced by those systems. Every project has unique constraints and needs, and trying to assemble applications from large pre-built solutions designed in isolation from the problem at hand is a nontrivial and often frustrating process. The feeling of working against tools rather than with them introduces friction which hampers creativity, inhibits developing a deep understanding of the system, and ultimately leads to worse products and reduced impact.
My mission as an innovator is to share the joy of simplicity by building reliable, intuitive, and frictionless systems that empower people to create quality products. I want to build infrastructure that enables others to express their creativity and gives them the tools to focus on realizing their unique ideas. To me, there is nothing more fulfilling than seeing someone benefit from a system that I helped build. I believe tools have a multiplicative effect on the impact teams can create, and that using high-quality tools can be extremely beneficial to the success and sustainability of any project.
The hard part is designing high-quality tools. Developers often reach for complex solutions to address complex problems. I believe that the more complex a problem is, the more important the simplicity of the tools becomes. As projects grow in scope and lifespan, the negative effects of complex tools compound. Developers have a finite amount of mental bandwidth, and every bit of effort dedicated to using tools is a bit diverted from solving the problem at hand and creating value for end users. In my experience, high-quality tools present the essential building blocks needed to efficiently solve problems, leaving developers to compose those blocks along with their own abstractions to solve their specific problem.
Software exists to bridge the gap between human intention and computer execution, allowing people to harness the power of digital computation to create real-world impact. Every software product is built upon layers of abstraction that expose increasingly higher-level interfaces. The intention of this model is to allow developers to work using the level of abstraction that best suits their specific application while efficiently reusing underlying systems. Each layer's interface represents the core capabilities of the system, making minimal assumptions about how those capabilities will be used by developers. In my opinion, this is the design philosophy that creates the best tools.
My goal is to study the problems encountered in my own projects as well as problems encountered by my coworkers and team members, reduce them to their fundamental parts, and develop generalized interfaces that cleanly abstract away some of the complexity of software development, leaving simple tools ready to be mastered. In a world increasingly filled with complexity, I believe a conscious pursuit of simplicity is not just a desirable goal, but a necessary one. Simplicity paves the way for innovation, empowering people to take full control of their tools, iterate quickly, and ultimately, transform their ideas into impact.