There’s a lot to reflect on from this 2025 talk from Jeaye Wilkerson, creator of jank, a Clojure dialect targeting C++ interop: “How to stick with your projects, even when they’re janky”:
- One thing he mentions but doesn’t highlight is that he’s been tracking his projects, including reading, and the outcomes — did the project get finished? — for over a decade. I wonder if another lesson is just the importance of paying attention, recording things, reflecting on your observations, and building theories.
- He starts by talking about a jovial jibe from a team lead at the beginning of his career: “And that is why you will never ship.” This brings to mind the Steve Jobs quote: “Real artists ship”.
- I enjoyed the literary allusions throughout. I especially liked this quote from Henry David Thoreau that he ended with: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
- Bullet points from his summary:
- “Stay focused”
- Earlier he mentioned that he tries to avoid side projects. (I glance nervously around looking at the piles of programming books, writing books, plant books, sociology books, etc., I have checked out. I struggle to find the window with his video amongst all the other tabs and windows I have open.)
- “Build a community”
- He cites the 1934 book — new to me — “Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist” by Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz. (Both authors survived WWII by fleeing mainland Europe.) Today, we expect that “art” will be the work of a single nameable artist — though maybe not so much for commercial art? — but in earlier periods, artists were generally unknown or worked under a “workshop model” where a master artist directed the work of apprentices collaborating to create the final piece. Wilkerson suggests using this “workshop” approach for software. Sounds good to me!
- (Though it would make me even more unfocused, his description of community building really makes me want to get involved with jank.)
- He cites the 1934 book — new to me — “Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist” by Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz. (Both authors survived WWII by fleeing mainland Europe.) Today, we expect that “art” will be the work of a single nameable artist — though maybe not so much for commercial art? — but in earlier periods, artists were generally unknown or worked under a “workshop model” where a master artist directed the work of apprentices collaborating to create the final piece. Wilkerson suggests using this “workshop” approach for software. Sounds good to me!
- “Dream carefully”
- “Momentum”
- “Stay focused”
I’ve not really done his talk full justice, but in the spirit of focusing on shipping, I’m publishing this as is. 🙂
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