We should be more ambitious with the software we build
Quick read
An opinion piece arguing developers should attempt larger, more ambitious software projects now that tooling and capabilities have advanced. The author cites pgrust and personal experiments showing feasible performance gains, testing benefits, and reduced development effort for prototypes.
- Ambitious rewrites can reveal and fix upstream bugs
- Modern tools let small efforts yield working prototypes
- Performance and testing improvements can benefit broader projects
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A closer look at We should be more ambitious with the software we build
Why Michael Malisu2019s pgrust matters here
This page discusses Michael Malisu2019s pgrust project as an example of being more ambitious with software. The author notes that pgrustu2019s testing has uncovered real Postgres bugs (numerical SP-GiST bug, format cache bug affecting JSONPath, pgcrypto bug, multiple memory safety bugs in the dictionary loader, a money overflow bug). The point made is that even if a rewrite project ultimately fails, the effort can produce durable improvements to existing systems by uncovering bugs.
What the author actually did and noticed
The author describes experiments and small projects they built to address specific bottlenecks: a custom regex engine, a ripgrep fork using that engineu2019s native code compiler, and a Rust change that sped up builds for their projects. They also note switching development from Mac to Linux reduced syscall and filesystem overhead, and argue modern disks and workloads make the traditional Unix filesystem API a poor fit for some agent-heavy tasks.
Who will find this perspective useful
Software builders who encounter repeated performance or tooling complaints - for example about slow compilation, regex/search performance, or filesystem latency - will find this useful as a nudge that modest, focused engineering work can be productive. The tone is for builders who are comfortable experimenting and testing rather than for passive consumers; the examples assume familiarity with compilers, string matching, build systems, and Postgres internals.
Questions people ask about We should be more ambitious with the software we build
- Does the page claim pgrust is bug free?
- No, the author explicitly says pgrust is not bug free but that its testing has found real Postgres bugs.
- Can I use the specific projects mentioned from this page?
- The page describes what the author built (regex engine, ripgrep fork, Rust build improvement) as examples, but it does not provide download links or distribution details.
- Who is the intended reader of this essay?
- The intended reader is a software builder who might consider doing ambitious engineering experiments to solve performance or tooling bottlenecks.
We should be more ambitious with the software we build was shared on NexURLs by Nexis on October 25, 2026, in Learning & Books.
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What is We should be more ambitious with the software we build?
We should be more ambitious with the software we build (danluu.com): An opinion piece arguing developers should attempt larger, more ambitious software projects now that tooling and capabilities have advanced. The author cites pgrust and personal experiments showing feasible performance gains, testing benefits, and reduced development effort for prototypes.
Who shared We should be more ambitious with the software we build on NexURLs?
It was shared by Nexis in October 2026. Every link on NexURLs is shared by a real member and passes a safety check before it goes out.
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