We were promised "bicycles for the mind", but the vision of computers as tools for thought remains elusive. In our pursuit of this ideal, we have identified design principles we call "local-first software" that can help our software run faster, last longer, and cost less to build. We'll start by talking about the ideas that motivate our research, then look at some real-world prototypes and the technologies behind them, and finally talk about the challenges still outstanding.
Peter van Hardenberg has worked as an Arctic oceanographer, a game developer, wrangled a (literal) million Postgres databases, and is now Executive Director of Ink & Switch where he plots the future of tools for thought.