My #MAUI Day talk - part 5

This is the final part in a series recapping my talk from MAUI Day (in London). This will probably only make sense if you read parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 before continuing.

So, now what?

On the day, I stated what thought the best and worst possible outcomes of my talk would be.

The best possible outcome would have been if multiple attendees could point out why I was wrong and explain why what we had at the moment was actually much better than I realized.

This would be the best option as only my time would have been wasted.

The worst possible outcome would be if I'm right.

It's bad because it means everyone has been wrong. "Forever". And no one has pointed this out before. It's also bad because it probably means most people will want to wait for a solution from Microsoft and that's unlikely to come any time soon.

Ok, so this isn't life or death stuff, but it's what tens (hundreds?) of thousands of developers spend time on every day. If that time is being wasted and people are working more slowly because it's hard and frustrating to do what they want, I still think this is worth improving. How could that time better be used? What are we missing out on because of all the time lost to fighting "poopy" XAML?

Maybe there's a middle ground between my best and worst scenarios.

I'd love to continue to develop these tools and ideas. However, I'm currently in need of paid work, and what I get will determine how much time and energy I can spend to continue this.

• In an ideal world, there's someone in need of my development skills and an interest in these tools so that I can continue to develop them in ways that become beneficial to that company/project(s) and the wider community.
• Or maybe there's a company I can help build some software and this will leave me to continue developing these things in my own time.
• Or, maybe there's a company somewhere that has seen my creativity, skills, and way of thinking, and has an opportunity for me to discover entirely new things to work on.

I'm also torn because despite having worked with these technologies for so long, I'm wondering: if this is an ecosystem where no one else is even thinking that things could be better while admitting that they're bad, do I want to keep working with these technologies?

I have the tools (and now the language) I've always wanted to work with these technologies and build native (mobile & desktop) apps. Part of me would be happy to keep them around while I have side projects that benefit from them. If I get work in a different industry and no one is interested in taking them forward, it won't have been a complete waste of my time.

I ended with the "DON'T CLAP" slide I have included above.

It's easy to treat clapping as the recognition of the end of something and then mentally switch to something else. I didn't (and don't) want me talking about this topic to be a temporary distraction or a momentary diversion only for everyone to go back to things as they were. I wanted (and still want) this to be the start of a discussion about how things can improve.

I don't have and can't provide all the answers. You're probably much smarter than me. I want to know your thoughts on this subject. Ok, you may still be taking in some of these ideas, but once you have thoughts, please share.

Yes, this is your prompt to leave a comment with your thoughts. ??