Mary Rose Cook
@maryrosecook
Followers
6K
Following
2K
Media
338
Statuses
4K
Product engineer at Void building tools for making video games. Previously a staff product engineer at @airtable.
San Francisco, CA
Joined March 2007
It's surprising how much better your judgement can get in a domain if you just learn the ground-floor facts of that domain. Nothing complex. No concepts that are "hard". No skill building. No practice. Just dumb information ingestion and retention.
3
29
260
The most interesting all-in-one future of programming tools: Inform7, Dynamicland, Axure, Airtable, Pico-8, Replit, GameMaker. Which ones am I missing?.
24
15
216
Despite moments like this, I think GPT-3 is staggering and I adore it.
6
0
202
A to do list app that supports end-user programming. Using afterburner rendering makes it incredibly easy to support the EUP. Every app should have this.
7
14
168
I used @lobe_ai and @FacebookOrigami to make a prototype that identifies my son's stuffed animals when you hold them up to the camera. Shout-out to @jonathanhammond for the integration hints.
6
17
160
Yesterday, I left Airtable. I'm proud to have been tech lead on Automations, one of the three pillars of the product. And I'm very happy I got to work on an ambitious end-user programming tool that actually has users (because it solves a real problem).
12
1
158
Very excited to say that, today, I became an American!
19
0
156
Especially true of informal knowledge e.g. of a codebase. The hyper productive engineers who have been at your company two years aren’t necessarily geniuses. More likely they’ve just encountered many of the simple facts about the architecture e.g. code for x is in y directory.
1
14
149
The most useful keyboard shortcut I've learnt in ages:. ⌘L to put the cursor in the browser's address bar.
8
29
142
Are there any books or documentaries that investigate the practice of building tools for your own use? E.g. Aphex Twin making his own instruments, Vermeer (possibly) building and using a camera obscura, Ableton Live, etc.
19
21
132
I made Lude. It lets you build video games quickly. Here's a demo where I build Breakout -.
7
33
136
Would anyone be willing to let me watch them code? . I'm trying to understand better why programming takes so damn long, and trying to fix it. Sessions would be confidential, of course. Reply or DM if you're willing!.
42
16
125
Best books about inventing new representations (e.g. the desktop metaphor)? Text books, how-tos, surveys, accounts of specific instances, memoirs - anything.
12
14
89
Excited to say I'm now a work-permitted Bay Area resident! Looking for my next dev job. Ideally, on a small team making a product that's still being defined. Particularly interested in making creative, programming or edu tools. Or, you know, reinventing how humans use computers.
7
18
77
First demo of Code Lauren, my programming environment for beginners: Try it out at http://t.co/4GRQCw1Dpx.
8
41
72
It’s odd that the output of academia is almost entirely documentation. Not machines, not lab setups, not software, not infrastructure not services, not places. Basically, just words and graphics.
4
7
71
Explaining how I explain things (using examples from Git From the Inside Out . 1/7.
1
10
68
Fascinating account of how the original Crash Bandicoot team solved technical and game design problems:
1
14
62
Many successful end user programming environments make entering and viewing data the primary interaction. E.G. HyperCard, spreadsheets, Airtable.
4
4
69
One of the coolest feelings in programming is seeing code and its output in the same runtime.
6
5
67
I started a podcast about building software quickly. In the first episode, I talk to @geoffreylitt about building end user software for cooking, how communities foster research, and trade-offs between concrete use cases and ambitious research.
7
8
58
Defining programming as “getting computers to produce the behavior you want” is a much more useful definition for improving software creation than “typing code.” Even though it includes degenerate cases like “pressing the E key in a Google Doc.”.
3
4
54
Request for Startups: behavioral prototyping tools that faithfully represent an idea, fast.
3
2
50
Lauren bought me an OP-1. It’s an incredible piece of design. A head exploding LEGO kit for making music.
3
1
49
I wrote about Scapula, my tool that lets you edit a React app with a GUI and ports the edits back into your code.
2
8
49
Reminders to myself to help me get better at programming: Add your own in the comments!.
1
33
43
Afterburner rendering: Let end user programmers replace parts of an app with UI and behavior they define.
2
3
49
I got my first programming job by mailing a letter to every computery-sounding company in the Yellow Pages.
0
3
49
I wrote some words to try to understand why it's hard to compose interfaces. My theory is based on the idea that an interface itself has an interface.
3
5
50
Pro-tip: Give every application a command palette by binding a keyboard shortcut that opens the Help menu. (I used Keyboard Maestro and Option-\)
1
5
43
It's weird that REPL-driven development has a step where you copy the function you've crafted back into your source. Why do we need source files?. Instead, store functions in the environment. When a function is changed, the new version is used instantly. No refresh, no lost state
4
1
44
Today, Airtable released Automations, which I helped make. Use triggers and actions to run your org's business logic. At the weekend I used Airtable with Automations and Apps to build a film recommender. I make most of my personal software in Airtable these days.
0
3
45
Giving a talk about algorithmic complexity. Aim: use only a whiteboard and pens. No maths, no code, no slides.
1
5
42
1. Start with a basic animation. 2. LLM generates ideas for improvement. 3. User picks one. 4. LLM implements the idea. 5. Goto 2.
3
6
45
Do I know anyone who is well versed in the non-finance, non-calculation-forward uses of spreadsheets?. * Spreadsheet as database.* Spreadsheet as app building env (e.g. "I made a chess computer in my spreadsheet").* Spreadsheet as list maker.* Spreadsheet as planner.* Etc. .
19
9
42
Strongly recommend having reflective conversations with GPT-4-Voice. With each one, my thinking has ratcheted forwards significantly. Talking is faster than typing. A voice feels warmer than text. Audio lets you lean back into a more reflective attitude.
6
3
38
Increase iteration speed by letting the user butt in on GPT as it answers.
3
3
40
I hooked up GPT-3 to a phone number so I can text it with questions. Pretty helpful.
1
2
40
Have you ever learned something significant by playing a game?.
32
5
39
More hybrid code/UI app editor. Click a component to jump to the code that defines that component in your editor.
2
2
37
The DOM is magical. It enables an extensible, interactive, inspectable programming environment. In a browser which is just a "lowly" "viewer" application. The web accessibly programmable, and I feel lucky to be able to work in it.
0
1
34
My two favorite memoirs about the creative process:. - The Making of Prince of Persia.- The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book. Any other good ones?
4
3
36
Making a thing to help me build an intuition for exponential growth.
1
3
31
Best book/essay that surveys video game modding? Looking for a broad intro that looks at multiple games / mod systems. Particularly interested in the abstractions provided to the modders by the game. E.g. command blocks / redstone in Minecraft.
4
9
34
At Airtable, we have weekly design crits where engineers and designers can share works in progress and get really enriching feedback. [We're hiring!].
5
1
35
I made a very simple game called One. Most enjoyable on a phone.
3
4
33
Best accounts of making a product? Already read and liked:. Insanely Great (Mac).Revolution in The Valley (Mac).The Making of Prince of Persia.Skunk Works (SR-71).Code Name Ginger (Segway).Founders at Work (various startups).Masters of Doom (Doom).
10
1
34
Me: "What should Lauren and I wear for our wedding?". My niece: "Matching golden dresses.".
9
1
34
You scroll to a menu item with the mouse, then you switch to selecting with the keyboard. The menu I'm working on doesn't forget your implicit mouse selection. It starts the keyboard selection from where you left off scrolling.
2
2
34
The value of core mechanics in games and in programming environments.
3
4
32
At breakfast, our 4yo said, “We have three kids in our family.” . I said, “Ah, let’s count. There’s you (one), baby Elijah (two). Who is the third kid?”. “You. Mama is the only grown-up in the family.”. Burn.
2
0
31
I talked to @rsnous on my podcast. We had a great conversation about:. * Communicating computing design principles through demos, rather than manifestos. * Embodying computational objects as things the user already knows how to manipulate.
1
6
32
The Baratza Encore coffee grinder was clearly designed to be very easy to repair. The company sells replacement parts at low prices with installation guides an amateur like me can follow. So fucking cool.
2
0
30
What are the best books about how specific inventions were invented?.
17
4
28
Wrote a 2D view to debug my raytracer. Already found a bug!
0
5
28
I've found that taking walks + writing down thoughts on my phone as I go + synthesizing into perennial categories like motivation/goal setting/leverage to be a transformative reflection technique.
2
1
27
Books I read in 2022. Favorites marked with a ⭐️. * Small Giants, Bo Burlingham.* My Life in the Screen Trade, William Goldman.* Non Designer’s Design Book, Robin Williams.* User Interface Design for Programmers, Joel Spolksy.* Insanely Great, Steven Levy ⭐️.
3
1
29
My new talk. An intuitive introduction to writing efficient code -
0
3
27
Improve your ability to read code accurately: . (An experiment. Would love feedback!).
4
4
26
Building a game on two screens. The real game running on your phone. A rich, synced direct manipulation editor on your desktop.
0
2
30
One-pagers, a technique to handle overwhelming complexity:
0
5
27
An MVP for a car. An incredibly touching gift from the developers I coached at @makersacademy
0
0
28
@joshm @browsercompany Forstall did an incredible interview at the Computer History Museum. He talked about how, after Apple, he went on to produce Fun Home on Broadway. He also told some fascinating stories about the development of the iPhone and about working with Jobs.
1
0
26
Dovetail, a VSCode extension that uses code generation to let you make broader, multi-file changes to a project.
4
4
28
Recommend Object-Oriented Design Heuristics. A collection of crisp, nuts-and-bolts guidelines (heuristics) for better object-oriented designs. Also, I love that it was written 24 years ago.
0
4
27
Jake helping me use a prototype of Message to make a stuffed animal sound board.
1
2
26
I made a game to train myself to experiment more and double down on what's working.
1
0
28
I wrote up two examples of designers using prototyping tools. Bas Ording (inertial scrolling) using Macromedia Director. Mike Matas (Lobe, Facebook Paper, iPhone) using Quartz Composer.
1
5
27
How many periods do you need at 3% growth to double your money? 24.
1
4
23
Whole Software Funding Catalog. Examples of models of funding software development.
1
2
21
What animation/rendering program is used to create the high volume / low quality kids’ shows like Cocomelon, PJ Masks, Paw Patrol?.
3
2
24
Meilir Page-Jones at OOPSLA '87: . On an object-oriented farm there is an OO cow with some OO milk. Should the OO cow send the OO milk the uncow yourself message, or should the OO milk send the OO cow the unmilk yourself message?.
2
2
24
I interviewed David Cole, designer of Castle, an incredible app for making games on your phone -. We talked about -. How game design techniques like emergence can be applied to non-game software. 🧵.
1
3
24
Doom was a big hit because a) the step-change graphics and gore gave it an immediate wow factor and b) the enduringly enjoyable gameplay meant it delivered. Correct? Way off base?.
12
0
25