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by als0 1517 days ago
Why is this university spending money to make basic apps instead of working on research?
3 comments

Apps that are simple enough to be taken apart and studied, while complete enough to be practical tools in day-to-day tasks? Obviously you can just use them as they are (many people value minimalism), but there's also huge educational value for aspiring developers, or as testbeds for other experiments (can you be productive with only basic tools, how does it impact your social life, etc).

I think there's a huge gap between what e.g. suckless.org produces, and what's usable by ordinary people, and it would be of tremendous value to society if we could push back on unnecessary software complexity.

Doing good in society is the purpose of a university, and is usually the motive for research to begin with.
why are chefs baking bread? there's buildings to construct.