Smash Notes

Back to The Curious Case of Henry Modisett, with Henry Modisett.

How Did Henry Modisett Get Into Software Design?

Henry Modisett studied computer science, loved the big concepts such as algorithms and graph theory, and basically failed most of his tests. What stayed with him was figuring out how the material actually worked and building something a person could use, rather than doing the hardest engineering problems just for their own sake.

Friends nearby were product designers working on physical products, or architects. The worldview expanded with a basic realization: every object and every piece of software was designed by a person, so all of it could be better, improved, and iterated on by someone with an idea. He finds that deeply empowering, and treats it as the optimism a designer should carry. Anxiety about how things suck, or about systems crushing people, can sit next to the feeling that a designer can change everything. A roommate worked at Hasbro. The house was like Sid's house in Toy Story, full of broken toys put back together, because the roommate would go to Target, buy toys, take them apart to see how they worked, and try to make new stuff. The energy in that house made the same belief available for software, and software is way easier.

People then were also starting to think of software as products, and a lot of Dieter Rams ideas were getting thrown on top of software. In his view that overlap was maybe interesting for a moment and inspiring for a moment, but it did not last very long as truly applicable.

Grokipedia·Toy Story·Dieter Rams

Transcript

The Curious Case of Henry Modisett ·

First of Kind

More from this episode

  1. Why Would Perplexity Build a Browser?Henry Modisett wants Perplexity to build a browser because most people cannot tell a search engine from a browser, and the product should show up wherever…
  2. What Do the Best Designers Want From a Job?Henry Modisett says the best designers want ownership, trust, and accountability from a job. He hires and keeps people by working backward from talent.
  3. What Is Perplexity's Brand Strategy?Henry Modisett's brand strategy for Perplexity starts from the product being about knowledge, and knowledge is everything.
  4. Why Did Henry Modisett Join Perplexity?Henry Modisett joined Perplexity because he had worked with two of its co-founders at Quora and already knew them as some of the best engineers he had ever…
  5. How Did Perplexity Become an Answer Engine?Henry Modisett says Perplexity became an answer engine through truly iterative experiments.
  6. Why Is Craft the Easy Part of Hiring a Designer?Henry Modisett treats craft as the easy part of hiring a designer because the work can be judged before any conversation.
  7. Why Does Perplexity Refuse Design Mocks?Henry Modisett refuses design mocks unless Perplexity really believes it will build and launch the work. A mock can open a project.
  8. What Happened to View Source?Henry Modisett says the great poverty of the web today is that the view source impulse is being lost.
  9. Why Does a Startup Make a Better Designer?Henry Modisett says a startup makes you a better designer because you make hard decisions, ship them, and see the results.
  10. How Can Someone Know a Fact Faster Than Ever Before?Henry Modisett says a person can know something confidently faster than ever before. He calls that property of Perplexity speed to knowledge.

People

More answers like this

The other side

More with Soleio

Related episodes

Plays from this note through the rest of the episode.

Note

Weekly highlights

One letter a week.

The notes worth hearing, with the minute they were said.