It's really important to note what he only barely says here—he's not disinterested in software engineering because he doesn't think it's valuable today—he's only interested in it because it's an okay model for how powerful tools get built for children.

I feel like HN is a terrible audience for this message. Not because there aren't people here who will love it—and to them, disregard the rest—but instead because so much of the community is about making value with the technology that exists today. We're trying to be presentists and do good jobs with the problems and tools that we have in front of ourselves. That's why MVPs and marketing for traction make sense. That's why we can argue for oh so long about the javascript framework of the moment or best practices for software design. Because that stuff is important and has really tangible relation to our ability to generate value today.

I respect the hell out of Bret Victor, but also recognize that he's targeting something different. Something that makes him a little more of a mathematician than a programmer. A little more of an artist than a builder. Something that drives him to teach children instead of adults.

I personally struggle with this a lot, a lot. I want to build perfect software, not because I care about that program, or because I think it'll make me more money and thus give me more freedom. I strive for it because whenever I make a step in that direction I realize I'm communing with something unearthly. Something I don't understand.

Personally, I know I want to teach some day, but I couldn't stand academia because the academia I found was chasing after efficiency in achieving a notion I didn't believe in. For that reason, I'm so glad Bret does what he does and tells the world about it. I believe in him, strangely enough.

I think because even though we cannot know at all what he's striving toward, it's a value that I can come to respect much more than the entirety of "tech" today. Truly, I hope a lot of people think that's foolish.