iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Duncan Brown @duncanjbrown.com · 27/10/2025

A few ideas on what "good software" (not "good code"!) is, touching ethics, interop, commercials and functionality 🧵

for context: the second edition of "Observability Engineering" starts off swinging with an opinionated chapter called "The Fundamentals of Building Good Software". which begs the question... what IS ✨ good software ✨? i'll drop my answers 👇 but curious to hear others.

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Duncan Brown @duncanjbrown.com · 27/10/2025

1. Good software works, which means it does what is expected according to the consensus reality shared by the team, the rest of the company, the community, etc, and it can change as the consensus reality changes.

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Duncan Brown @duncanjbrown.com · 27/10/2025

2. Good software does not pursue lock-in. It seeks to actively participate in open standards and to improve them where tasteful and appropriate. Ideally it does not need to care what its own commercial model is.

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