Version 2.0

I came across this quote via John Gruber today, and it might be the most perfect description of how I’ve felt lately about Sifter.

For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.

It’s only been in the last couple of months that I have truly started to feel really good about Sifter. Not where it’s at right now precisely, but where we’re heading. So, by the time I’m satisfied, Sifter will have been live for around 3 years. That’s a long time to be disappointed with your own work. That’s not easy to fight through.

Clearly, Sifter has a long ways to go until I’m satisfied. In order to ship the first version and grow to the point where we had the revenue to build what I really envisioned, we had to make concessions. Those concessions haunt me every day. Every extra click. Every clunky interaction. They haunt me even more when they inconvenience a customer. Nobody is more acutely aware of Sifter’s inadequacies than I am. Fortunately, nobody is more serious or passionate about correcting them either.

(Source: daringfireball.net)