Sox so good, we'll only ever need 1Sox so good, we'll only ever need 1
I was lucky to share some Texas barbecue with @sox this summer - but I found I wanted to know more and more about this curious and interesting creature who has already added much to Stacker News.
These are not extensive questions, and I ask you to add your own if you've got 'em.
What was the first impression you had about bitcoin?
"wait, I can now generate money with my computer?"
Mind you it was the 2011, the selling point to an 11 years old can be (is) free money. Of course it wasn't free, of course my parents got a huge electrical bill; of course I instantly fell head over heels for bitcoin.
Who is your hero and why?
My hero is no celebrity or popular person. It's a random guy I met on a Minecraft server when I was a child. They taught me that I can be a programmer, specifically how to use Java to create things.
For a boy who used to be bullied by teachers for his school performance... because he just wanted to tinker with his computer, it was a completely new feeling to know that he can actually create things and be proud of them.
I owe a lot of what I am today to that random guy, he's one of my best friends.
What was your first impression of Stacker News?
It was one of those rare moments where you truly feel something's new is happening. It was (still is) bonkers to me that people were spending satoshis, fractions of a penny for their thoughts (🥁).
Robot/Human moderators felt a thing of the past, both for the fact that someone has to put their money where their mouth is (🥁) and that every stacker is actually a moderator thanks to downzaps.
My first impression is actually disbelief, how could a concept this crazy even work? But it works.
Do you like to listen to anything while you're tinkering on the computer??
I like Electronic Dance. It's fun, creative and gives life back to digital music. My favorite piece of all time is Resonance by HOME, still gives me the chills to this day.
To be honest, it's hard for me to listen to something while trying really hard to stay focused and think about a problem that I'm trying to solve. But when I'm in the flow, and everything feels fine, music is there to make me fly through thousands of lines of code.
Thank you for your contributions here, I am enjoying new edit features rolling out, and I'm noticing subtle improvements to the look. Which part of the release stage is most fun for you? People seeing it? The initial build?
The funniest part, and I might be alone on this, is the post-release hotfixes. The post-release energy is no joke, especially when you’re well aware of the creation you just published. We shipped over 30 bugfixes to the new editor in just a week!
People seeing it, instead, is one of the most anxious moments I can endure. But also the most exciting, this is where your creation finally shows what it's capable of.
oh and thank you guys!
ZAP @soxZAP @sox
I forgot to forward sats to him! Zap him in the comments!
Great interview and nice timing. Brings a great dose of energy to 2026. Start the new year powerful!
I wanna ask @sox: what is special about working with the fine folks at SN — that can’t be replicated elsewhere?
Usually you get a job, respond to a manager or a boss, do the work and at the end of the day you're a nobody to them.
I joined SN and I got friends to build stuff with. And I mean real people that are real friends-type of company, not the fake "we are a family"-type of company.
Nice interview. Feel like I need to spend more time interacting with @sox
Yeah he’s the coolest
It could let you learn something new every day.
Wow, @sox, dude you cool, like electronic dance! Love the take and love what you're doing.
Nice little interview @plebpoet.
We love you SOX!
Thank you to the rando Minecraft player for giving you inspiration!
Hey now, thanks!!!
Nice! I assume this is going in the zine.
Haha never in my life would I have expected anyone to say their favorite part of shipping features is doing the post-release hotfixes
I always say that the hardest part of programming, once the skills are there, is maintaining/finding motivation. There's no motivation like someone else suffering from a problem you created. Otherwise we tend to exhaust ourselves imagining everything that can go wrong, and there's no end to things that can go wrong.
I think things are best shipped when they are rare to medium-rare - cooked well enough that no one is going to get sick from consuming them, but not so well cooked that you ruin the essence. Cooking is also a one-way process - I can cook a rare steak to make it well, but can't reverse the process. We can go backwards on a feature, but it's ~100x harder to motivate.
Interesting take.
When I make a paper public, one of the most stress-inducing things is when someone finds a problem with it. Even if I know I can fix it, it still causes that little lump in your chest when you find out. Isn't it like that with finding bugs?
On the other hand, as I get older and wiser, I realize that I agree with the medium-rare steak analogy. If I try too hard to make the paper airtight prior to releasing it, I've wasted a bunch of time because there are always problems I can't foresee. Better to release it once the essence is there, and let the public / referees find all the nuanced issues that you can go back and fix later.
In a way, this is even a safer way to get published, because referees always look for something to criticize no matter what. If you work too hard to squash all the bugs prior to shipping, they just end up finding harder to squash bugs.
Yes, it's very unpleasant, but unpleasantness is one of the better fuels for motivation and motivation fuels things getting done.
If we want to get things done, we should inject this kind of unpleasantness into the process as frequently as we can stand.
IME quality emerges more naturally from quantity than anywhere else. At least in part it's due to more contact with this unpleasantness.
I think that this is way better than “It’s so fun!!”
It’s so fun!!
The best part is when I get to say “Fixed” to the person that reported the issue. Bonus point if it happens within the first 15 minutes.
Hell yeah!
https://www.radicalcompliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/meme-sox-scope.jpg
Never heard sn spoken about this way. Really interesting insight Sox! Keep up the great work. 👏👏👏
🫡
It was a really comfortable experience! Thank you Jana, and thank you SN!!
Great profile genuine builder energy, thoughtful answers, and a clear sense of why Sox fits Stacker News so well. The Minecraft to Bitcoin arc says it all.
Really nice dude
Oh yh man
Yes, I sold all of my bitcoins when they reached 12 euros on the market.
Yes, I still think of that moment to this day.
The early Bitcoin moment you described captures a truth about innovation that people often forget The strongest adoption starts from wonder not utility Free money to an eleven year old is wonder The utility and the ideology came later after the bills arrived in the mail That spark is priceless and it is the difference between someone who tries something and someone who becomes part of it for life
Your comment about post release hotfixes hits on a bigger idea In programming the high of launch is real but the real work is the messy aftermath The fact that thirty bugs disappeared in a week tells me that you care enough to keep the ship moving instead of standing on deck celebrating The release is not the end It is the point where reality starts negotiating with your code
Motivation in programming is a strange beast It rarely comes just from trying to make something perfect It comes from two places Either you are personally driven by a vision or the problem is burning a hole in someone else's day and you feel responsible enough to fix it The steak metaphor is perfect because shipping too late can kill momentum and shipping too early can create chaos The art lies in knowing when it is cooked enough to survive the plate