Everything we do stems from our purpose, to make it so everyone can code. We’ll accomplish that over the next 30 years by following our strategy:
We want to make it so everyone can code. A world where everyone, not just ~0.1% of the world population, can code will see faster and more broadly beneficial technological progress.
For thousands of years after writing was invented, most people remained illiterate. Universal literacy seemed unlikely. Is it really possible that every human would be capable of reading and writing? How would literacy benefit the average person? As we now know, every human is capable of and benefits immensely from literacy.
More recently, around 1976, just 0.2% of the world’s population used computers. Two tiny companies sought to make computing universal: Apple’s vision then was to create a “bicycle for the mind” in the form of a computer, and Microsoft wanted to put a computer “on every desk and in every home”. Though it seemed unlikely at the time, as we now know, everyone is capable of and benefits immensely from having a computer (or a phone).
Today, only about 0.1% of the world’s population can code. That tiny group has built software that runs the modern world and improves the lives of billions of people. Think of the possibilities if everyone was able to code. All around the world, more people would be able to solve problems and improve their lives by building software. We don’t know exactly what these billions of coders will create, but we know that this will bring faster and more broadly beneficial technological progress.
To make it so everyone can code, we will create tools, networks, and incentives for coding at ever-larger scale.
Our values are the principles and beliefs that help us achieve our goals and vision.
We’re living in the era of Big Code: the amount, complexity, and value of code is growing quickly.
Tools and practices that were conceived before the era of Big Code will break down, leaving codebases that are huge but complex and brittle. Any change might shatter the whole thing. Developers become hesitant about making changes. Productivity slows, communication bottlenecks grow, deadlines are missed, and quality declines.
This is a new game. Companies that master this will thrive. Companies that don’t will fail.
For people as users of technology, Big Code is great. It means there’s more software out there, it’s more personalized, it’s faster, it’s on their desktop and phone and watch, it’s localized, and so on. But for developers, it’s way harder and takes way more work to build software than it did 10 years ago.