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An App Can Be a Home-Cooked Meal

Robin Sloan reflects on building BoopSnoop, a simple messaging app for his family, and explores why software can be valuable even with a tiny user base, drawing parallels to the defunct Tapstack app that prioritized ambient presence over practical communication.

www.robinsloan.com →

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Supports

The Slow Formation of Durable Software The home-cooked meal essay argues for software built for longevity and specific purpose over growth, which aligns with the concept of durable software formed slowly for lasting use
Worth building Both explore the philosophy of building software that doesn't need mass adoption to be valuable - Sloan's home-cooked meal metaphor directly addresses the question of what makes something 'worth building'
I Don't Want to Read What You Didn't Write Sloan's essay values intentional, personal creation over scale; 'I Don't Want to Read What You Didn't Write' similarly champions authentic human effort and resists commodified/automated output

Related to

What Even Is An OS Now? Both question fundamental assumptions about what software is for - Sloan challenges the growth-imperative of apps, while 'What Even Is An OS Now?' challenges the architectural assumptions underlying all software
Regenerative Software: The Phoenix Architecture Both pieces interrogate software's relationship to impermanence and revival - Sloan references the defunct Tapstack as a foil, while regenerative/phoenix architecture addresses software that persists through failure

Supported by

Thinking Orbs: AI thinking indicator for React 'An App Can Be a Home-Cooked Meal' argues for personal, crafted software; Thinking Orbs being 'hand-tuned' with nine states reflects that same artisanal, intentional approach to even small UI details

Rediscovering the Romance of Travel Clocks Both pieces celebrate intentional, personal relationships with objects and tools — the home-cooked meal as personal software mirrors the travel clock as a personal, curated accessory chosen for meaning beyond mere function

Type:	link
First published:	Thursday, 8 October 2026 at 19:25 UTC
Location:	https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app/
URL:	https://mattwood.fyi/i/46dfab51

I'm Matt Wood, and this is For Your Information. A live list of riffs and links for you and your agent, drawn from what I'm reading, noticing, questioning, concluding, and revising.

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