Engineer for Serendipity

The title of this post is a quote from Roy T. Fielding (he had a hand in creating the HTTP 1.1 spec in 1999, basically defined / put into words the architecture and behaviors of the internet as a hypermedia system – REST, and has done about a million other things).

The quote alludes to making your “thing” so that users accidentally find something fortunate. While I do not believe in chance, I do believe in the serendipitous nature of innovation. Because of Fielding and others like him and their "out of the box" thinking we have the internet and all of its wonder.

This video (posted via @digital_nomads) illustrates what happens when people think outside of the web browser or app window and use technologies established over 10 years ago to make people stand and clap. It seems the device in the video uses web based APIs to get data and use it in an unbelievably awesome way.

As you build applications, I challenge you to kick out the ladder and set it on fire, challenge the walls of your device – push against them, bring them down.

If we do our jobs as software developers and API Architects, consumers will find themselves in the middle of serendipity.