Santa Claude is coming to town
Computer science gives you tools to make amazing things. The tools are getting better very quickly these days.
But what will people build? Soon it will almost just be a matter of prompting your ideas into existence. Should we keep a list of things we want to build, like a wish list?
How to have good ideas for software to build?
- Do things
Software is a tool to help you do things better. If you are engaged in trying to do things in the world, or even in the world of computers, you might feel like you lack the tools, and then you’ll have ideas for software tools.
Talk to people about what they are trying to do
Talk to people about software
Read about software
E.g. Hacker News
Write about software
Browse software offerings
Scroll GitHub like its a feed. Check out Beta List and Product Hunt
- Prototype
Build to try out a technology. Build to express yourself. Build to copy and figure out how something was built.
- Learn about technologies
It’s important to have a positive attitude towards software. This can be difficult for some because software means screen time or the dangers of social media, or it means bugs and unfriendly user experiences.
Computer Science education focusses on how to do things, but should we not also be teaching what to do?