There are seven basic story plots:
- Overcoming the monster
- Rags to riches
- The quest
- Voyage and return
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Rebirth
How many distinct software “plots” are there?
- Making an impossible thing possible
- Automating or eliminating a manual thing
- Making a slow thing faster1
- Making a manual thing easier - inline definitions/translations, note-taking software that allows you to easily group related notes
- Entertaining the user
Let me know if you can think of any more.
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This is particularly powerful when you transition between orders of magnitude and facilitate a positive feedback loop. Make my test suite 15% faster and I’ll thank you kindly. Make it 10x faster and I’ll love you forever. ↩
