teekamsuthar
commented
4 months ago Hi Ben, I remember you from one of your earlier email from last year. Sorry that I couldn't respond to you until today. Your words have moved me so much. I was a university student when I started working on this project - this app was my final project for Harvard's @CS50 - an online course to learn the art of programming. Taught by the incredible @dmalan
This course was something I poured my heart and soul into - and I really wanted to create something meaningful for my final project. So I had spent more than a month thinking about the idea until I settled down to make Mutify! It took me another month to complete the initial version of it, after long back-and-forth testing of what worked best.
This was going to be an app I will use for myself. And I didn't know back then that it will go onto making such a big impact for other people out there too, being my first ever app. It has now been downloaded more than 850K times on the Google Play Store since. This is a small yet significant win here against these dark patterns and monopolies for all of its users.
Now, when I read such heartfelt messages like yours - it is so much validating for me, especially when it comes from a fellow developer who's been in the field for years. It reminds me of why I started this journey as a software engineer and the principles on which I started working on this app. It came from the belief of serving the goal of human enrichment, like you said. And yes! I do feel extremely PROUD to have met that goal in some way!
It's unfortunate that projects like these can only be sustained working part-time as hobbies in this world. But I intend to continue doing this and bring out more such projects in the future! Your encouraging words mean a great deal to me.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for writing this to me, Ben! :)
I've lived through a lot, I've written a lot of code which has impacted a lot of lives. I've left a google review, however I need to communicate this and I've been drinking so here we go.
This software is the greatest thing the human race has produced in decades when measured in terms of net benefit.
Sure writing Spotify is an effort, however software is about enriching lives and advancing the human condition. Not dark patterns and monopolies. Writing Napster was an effort too, a place I discovered much rare and now impossible to find music.
Nothing I have seen in multiple decades of software engineering meets this goal of human enrichment like Mutify.
This may be noise when considered as an "issue" but I wished to use the platform of github to communicate to you just how much I think you've met the goal. A goal every one of us strive for when utilising our magical powers of software creation
This is the pinnacle of software development and you should be extraordinarily proud.
Great work!