
We live in a system of self-government. Politics should be about how we serve each other, about what we need for our families to thrive, and what we need from one another in order to live in safety and harmony. Right now, our politics feel mostly like a series of angry popularity contests and about assigning blame for why our country feels unbalanced, unproductive, and unhealthy. Our leaders come across as deeply self-centered, disconnected from the needs and concerns of the people they represent, beholden to monied interests, and consumed by a narcissism of power that focuses them on winning not serving. Every argument, every disagreement feels like an existential threat. And on both sides, the volume knob seems only to go in one direction — to the point that it has become impossible to hear anything at all. If we continue down this path, we’re going to lose our republic.
If there’s one thing that I want you to take away from this talk, it’s that modern web toolkits are transforming from libraries you call into something that is more like a compiler. Except instead of compiling a higher-level programming language into native code, they’re compiling…