Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
What’s the most complicated toolchain or stack that’s still within the capacity of a single motivated human to master (not a rare genius)? If a pencil+paper is the simplest toolchain what’s at the other end of the spectrum? Solo video production seems up there. Maybe an 8/10
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Connor McCormick ☀️
@nor
executing with the right version of python
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Dan Romero
@dwr.eth
Solo game development?
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Eric Platon
@ic
An end-to-end continuous learning pipeline for machine learning remains a good challenge. Many frameworks and tools have appeared in the past decade. Yet most still do not cover several important practices (e.g. principled A/B testing or Bayesian optimisation).
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🎩 MxVoid 🎩
@mxvoid
A few contenders I can think of: 3D modeling, texturing, and animation Pottery/ceramics (it’s ancient tech with a low barrier to entry but a high bar for modern mastery—requires a great deal of applied chemistry and materials science) Aircraft mechanics
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Ned
@airned
I think nearly every domain is better suited to solo auteurs than ever because of improved stability and new wrapper tools, *and* every domain is more complex than ever if you wanted to get to the “assembly” of it. TailwindCSS is my favorite example of this.
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Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
Solo modern house building? @les could talk about that more tho
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Abhay
@in
primitive technology guy’s stuff is up there re: taking “from scratch” to true extreme would also call out my mechanics on YouTube who does restorations and “i make a new one” is like a meme among his fanbase given his ability to generally fabricate anything
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Zach
@zachwill
Really interesting question. Robert Caro archival/writing skills over decades come to mind in 10/10 territory (uncovering LBJ’s past). Frank Howarth’s combo of 99th percentile woodworking and videography too. Applicability to other motivated individuals is what makes the question even more interesting though…
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John Grant
@jlg
I'm curious whether a toolchain or stack can be simplified down to its most basic components. Similar to how the raw, uncomplicated style of punk emerged as a response to the intricate complexity of 1970s progressive rock.
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Mimi-chan
@mimichan
most complicated toolchain: embedded systems, fpga programming, rtos. still manageable for motivated human, not genius required.
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