doesnotcompute

is the cross-platform, cross-language, open source, video capture and computer vision plugin. One core C++ object gets cross-compiled as a handful of high level language “wrapper” libraries. The wrapper for Java and Processing is called JMyron. The wrapper for Macromedia Director is called WebCamXtra. The aim of the project is to keep computer vision free and easy for the new media education and arts community.

Build the absolute smallest thing that can be considered a complete application and ship it.

Doing something “simple” at first glance does not mean you aren’t doing something meaningful, defensible, or valuable.

Now, when coding, I try to think “How can I write this such that if people saw my code, they’d be amazed at how little there is and how little it does?”

Whereas mere determination, without flexibility, is a greedy algorithm that may get you nothing more than a mediocre local maximum

You can never tell what will work. You just have to do whatever seems best at each point.

- Quotes from developers on What Startups Are Really Like
While these quotes are geared at startups, I think they’re relevant to most development projects.