I feel like I write about this a lot, but maybe because it's something I'm always doing?
The last two days I've opened my (regrettable) Framework laptop, log-in and about five seconds after starting to work the screen goes black and I have to close the lid, count to ten and then open it and log-in again. I haven't even bothered to look into it because it's just another in a long list of papercuts that come with working with a modern computer.
I've been talking about a replacement for the modern computer, sort of hinting at it in increasing levels of detail and while I don't have the entire thing figured-out, I know where I'm going.
But the distance between my shitty Framework/Linux laptop and the computer I want to share with the world is real. Some days it feels close and some days it feels miles away.
I could cut some corners and possibly shorten that distance, but I've learned over and over the hard way that shortcuts don't get you where you're going and most of the time they lead you right back to where you started.
So what are some steps I can take to make real progress toward there?
I could start by making a list. The wondering prose and sketches I've been creating are good and should continue, but something concrete like a list would not only organize my thoughts but also provide some evidence that I've made real progress.
On that list might be simulation. I seem to remember my friend Vertigo mentioning that using a simulation of the hardware design he's working on accelerated his work on the software because a simulation can function as the ideal form of the hardware until you can get the hardware right. Aside from stability this allows for testing that would be much harder on real hardware and helps define what the final specs for the hardware should be. A simulator also makes it easier to work on the hardware and the software in parallel.
To that point (parallelism) I should really find some other people to work with. Most of my life I've not so much actively avoided this as I have gravitated toward work that doesn't seem to require it. It's really more about me than it is about others, but it's also about the work. While there are things about a project like this that I'm flexible about and would welcome the help of others skilled in the areas that I am not, there are other parts where I've spent years or decades cultivating what I think is best and when I work alone I don't have to defend or justify inflexibility in these areas. Saying it out loud, it sounds bad, but it's literally that I've thought very hard about these things and spent years experiencing them and I only have so much energy, I want to focus it on realizing the promise of that work and experience and not arguing about it. This makes it hard to collaborate without being a tyrant, and I refuse to do that.
But the fact is that if I'm going to do this, if I'm going to turn these ideas into a way to make a living I'm going to have to get help, which means getting-over this ...well let's call it what is is: *fear*. If what I'm proposing is as good as I say it is then the quality of the ideas it's based on must be observable by others. When I was writing the other day about how to reach an audience for the machine (I can't remember if I blogged that or just wrote it in my journal?) those same techniques or processes should apply to assembling a team to make the machine as well, right? The nut of that idea was to facilitate giving people a chance to experience what it's like to work with a machine like this, which is the same thing that cemented it for me.
I haven't used this future machine yet, but I've worked with pieces of hardware and software that have inspired the design of the new machine, and the daily use of these things convinced me that they were the right way to go. If I can find a way to share this experience with others, and if it resonates with them as well, I probably don't need to worry about explaining it. In fact having gone through the experience the team would have their own internal compass for staying on that path, no coercion required.
That's a much more anarchist way to approach such an endeavor, and just writing it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders.
Looks like I have some specific work to do, and at least one thing I can finish today.
Jason J. Gullickson, 2026