I was featured on the latest episode of the Stack Overflow podcast! You can hear me sounding off about why the web is broken, why we built Anvil, how our autocompleter works, and how to write good developer documentation:
Listen to the episode here
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Fantastic interview. Loved the conversation about documentation.
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I donât really understand why such podcast hosts are not more enthusiastic about Anvil. (I used to think the hang-up was that it wasnât open source, but now it is.)
More generally, as someone who knows very little about how to do full stack web development the traditional way, I am puzzled by the reactions of those who do when they hear about Anvil. I imagine that for many use cases, full stack developers would still find Anvil a better fit. But am I missing something?
Do other folks think of Anvil as a potential replacement for web development generally or as much more of a niche tool?
I mean, to customize the look, you need to do HTML and CSS regardless. But for the rest, Anvil seems likely to make everything smoother. I imagine there are tradeoffs in terms of performance, which is sometimes paramount. And in terms of flexibility, at some point having too many escape hatches defeats the purpose. But are there other things Iâm missing?
I did not sense that they were unenthusiastic. I thought the discussion felt bright and the hosts sympathized with the types of problems developers face with web apps, which of course plays right into Anvilâs strengths. It could be that, if they are not Python programmers, it might be harder for them to conceptualize the full value proposition of Anvil.
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Agreed it was a positive reception. I just want them to be even more enthusiastic. 
I guess part of the thing is just that they havenât tried it and there is a learning barrier to anything, especially if they donât already use Python, like you say.
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Itâs all there in the interview. The mixed messaging, the misaligned goals, the struggle, despite a core of enthusiastic followers, to find overall product-market fit.
What is interesting here is that the interviewer himself is one of those who got lost along the way.
I find it hard to fault him: the narrative is entirely incoherent. It starts out bemoaning the complexity of the web, and devolves into a technical analysis of the relative merits of different cross-language compilers.
The platform was there to speak to users (the interviewer mentions looking to build a âdog-walking appâ) and ends up seeking approval from an imaginary panel of technical gurus.
There is always an acknowledgement of what product envangelists are supposed do, but it inevitably falls back into academiaâs âlook at how intricate and clever this thing isâ, always at the cost of the practical âlook at what this thing enables you to doâ.
Anvil allows people to do great things. But they will never do them unless you make them believe they can.
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