The word is like the face, I am Brother Jun!
Recently a reader asked me, "Why is there such a big gap between Chinese programmers and foreign programmers?"
What he actually means is why foreign programmers can always come up with all kinds of new gadgets, but there are very few in China. In fact, I have written similar articles before, but today, I want to tell two short stories, from another perspective. Talk about it.
1
In 2006, Chris worked at Palm, which launched a mini notebook based on ARM and Linux. Chris was ordered to implement a PDF browser on this mini notebook.
Sadly, the mini notebook project was canceled before the PDF browser was finished.
But Chris thinks the PDF browser is very interesting: The company will no longer develop it, so I will develop one myself on the Windows platform!
So, he started tinkering during his business hours after get off work.
Unexpectedly, his hobby eventually formed a very popular reader: SumatraPDF.
SumatraPDF not only supports PDF format, but also supports ePub, Mobi, comic book, DjVu, XPS, CHM... It is actually a universal reader.
It is free and compact, has a simple interface, does not have any ads, and is a green software. It can be run immediately after downloading and starts very quickly. This is a software that can almost be rated 10 points.
These are nothing. What is shocking is that Chris has been polishing the software SumatraPDF for 17 years (2006~2023) after work !
17 years is a very long time, so long that the entire IT industry has undergone earth-shaking changes.
For example, Microsoft no longer provides technical support for Windows XP, the most popular operating system at the time.
The earliest code hosting platform for SumatraPDF was sourceforge (how many people know it?), then google code, and now GitHub.
The SumatraPDF forum used for discussion has also changed three times.
Over the past 17 years, Chris has continuously upgraded the software, keeping small steps and expanding it from PDF to files in various formats. While adding functions, he resolutely resisted "temptation" and kept the interface clean.
Especially maintaining high-quality code when no one else does code review and there is no dedicated QA team.
In the past 17 years, Chris has made almost no money. He once made some Adsense click ads on the website and made a small amount of money. Later, he felt that it was disturbing users, so he removed it. The current Sumatra PDF official website is very clean.
Without the stimulation of money, how did Chris persevere in these 17 years? Where does his motivation come from?
Chris says: This is my project and I love it .
It's that simple, it's that pure.
2
There is a netizen named mitousa abroad who has nothing to do after work, so he started a hobby project: Web desktop.
In fact, there are so many Web desktops on the market, but mitousa doesn't care, he just wants to create his own system.
He spent $25,000 to buy a server, using Node.js for the backend, vanilla JS and jQuery for the frontend, and MySQL and AWS services for the database.
After 14 months of development, a Web desktop called puter that runs in the browser was born.
https://puter.com/
In this Web desktop, there are command lines, notepad, paint, PDF viewing software, mini games, audio recorders, video recorders... They all run in the browser, and the interface design is very clean and looks pleasing to the eye.
Mitousa put his Web desktop on reddit and other platforms to promote it, and gained 250,000 users within 4 months!
The comment section was full of praise:
"Very cool! Awesome!"
“This is amazing!!!!”
"here you go!"
......
Of course, some people will also ask:
“What was the motivation for this project?”
“What is the use of this project?”
Yes, what's the use?
I also logged in to puter.com to take a look, opened a notepad and wrote a few words, opened the command line and typed a few commands. The novelty wore off and I soon became bored.
I immediately thought: What are the commercial uses of this thing? Is it possible to get investment? Is it worth spending so much money and effort?
Maybe I'm too worldly!
For mitousa, although he does not rule out possible commercialization in the future, for now this is his hobby.
Let everyone use it without installing anything, and it can be used on any computer, anywhere.
Developing this software is so fun! This is enough.
3
Now that I have finished telling the story of two foreign programmers, I wonder how everyone feels.
I'm quite envious. I'm so happy to be able to follow my inner interests after get off work.
Neither of them thought about doing earth-shattering things at the beginning. From a business point of view, the direction they were in was full of competitors. Adobe Acrobat Reader was officially produced and free. If you were to create a similar software, would it be able to outperform Adobe?
The same goes for Web desktops, which can be said to be countless. This website lists more than 160:
https://github.com/syxanash/awesome-web-desktops
If it were me, I would probably retreat. Considering the benefits and input-output, I feel like I can't make any splash in it.
But these two people don't care so much, they just develop it if they like it, without considering it or interfering with commercial interests.
It is precisely this motivation to follow their interests that makes them successful.
Hidden behind this are two enviable facts:
1. No worries about food and clothing
Otherwise, it is impossible to do things that are not profitable.
2. I really have time
Doing these things really requires a lot of time investment.
I feel that if there are too many people like this, someone will appear one day and come up with something innovative and disruptive...
Finally, I found that many technical people don’t know how to make career plans, have encountered countless pitfalls, taken many detours, and wasted a lot of time.
In fact, most technical people do not make career plans based on their own strengths/interests. This Saturday I will live broadcast to share that technical people (front-end, back-end, algorithm, big data, testing, operation and maintenance, etc.) are at different ages. How to make career plans at different stages, such as 25 to 30 years old, 30 to 35 years old? How to break the 35-year-old crisis among technical people? Of course , you are also welcome to ask questions in the live broadcast room with your personal questions. We will see you there~
Recommended popular articles from the past:
Why do the number of top programmers in Northern Europe far exceed that in China?
For more exciting news, follow my official account and learn and grow together.
