Authentic Approximation
No-code's issues were: You had to want to build. You still needed a developer's ambition to create software. You were limited by the tools. The second is now irrelevant. You can truly build anything, if you have the first.[...] As barriers drop, we get more slop—which I think is a great thing. Not acceptable for a multi-billion-dollar company with production code (although it's happening a lot), but more than acceptable for someone who never created software before.
As we're seeing crappily built products everywhere, we're also seeing magical experiences. There is now a lower floor and a higher ceiling.
The late, great Andrew Weatherall:
What I'm trying to do, as an amateur, is 'authentic approximation...I'm not trying to be original. If you sit in a studio all day trying to be original, you'll never do it.
Slop is what self-anointed high-status people call low-status leisure.
Authentic approximation is a much better frame.
Not pretending the rough edges are good. Just recognising that rough edges are often what happens when new people get their hands on a medium before it becomes domesticated.
[It's] an illustration from a fanzine called Sideburn #1, which was a drawing made by Tony Moon just to fill the space. It's a drawing of three guitar chords and it says, 'now form a band'. That fanzine is extremely rare, but the drawing is often quoted by lots of musicians as the impetus to do something, and it's seen as a key message of punk," says Toby. "You didn't need to have been to music school or be particularly proficient or skilled. It was much more about the energy and drive to do something. It's a rallying call to the troops.
The bad version is synthetic slop pretending to be serious software.
The fun version is personal punk playthings.
Here are the chords. Now do it yourself.