--- title: Against Usefulness | daily.dev description: A venture investor recounts visiting Folk Computer, an open-source physical computing system built by ex-Dynamicland researchers in Brooklyn, where paper... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/against-usefulness-mgwoorxj8 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Against Usefulness | daily.dev og:description: A venture investor recounts visiting Folk Computer, an open-source physical computing system built by ex-Dynamicland researchers in Brooklyn, where paper... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/against-usefulness-mgwoorxj8 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mgWOORXj8.png og:image:alt: Against Usefulness og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Against Usefulness **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A venture investor recounts visiting Folk Computer, an open-source physical computing system built by ex-Dynamicland researchers in Brooklyn, where paper sheets are live running programs and the room itself is the computer. The essay traces the intellectual lineage from Xerox PARC through Alan Kay, Bret Victor's CDG and Dynamicland, to Folk Computer's open-source pivot. It argues that paradigm-shifting work is always pre-useful by design, historically funded by patrons rather than markets, and that the current AI agent monoculture leaves no one asking the strange questions. The author closes with a call for independent thinkers working on unfashionable long-horizon problems, offering introductions, grants, and distribution rather than just investment. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The paper computer « the jsomers.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/the-paper-computer-the-jsomers-net-blog-0jshchqlx) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your codebase doesn't care how it got written](https://daily.dev/posts/your-codebase-doesn-t-care-how-it-got-written-do0usjgun) · RUBYLAND · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Programming used to be free](https://daily.dev/posts/programming-used-to-be-free-ceydkqepr) · Lobsters · 53 upvotes · 16 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#human-computer-interaction](https://daily.dev/tags/human-computer-interaction) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/against-usefulness-mgwoorxj8) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Against Usefulness","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/against-usefulness-mgwoorxj8","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/against-usefulness-mgwoorxj8"},"datePublished":"2026-07-12T20:36:52.480Z","dateModified":"2026-07-12T20:37:15.491Z","description":"A venture investor recounts visiting Folk Computer, an open-source physical computing system built by ex-Dynamicland researchers in Brooklyn, where paper...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e7f8a242cd5a4afee301b0682779ed99?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e7f8a242cd5a4afee301b0682779ed99?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/against-usefulness-mgwoorxj8","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,human-computer-interaction","timeRequired":"PT11M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Against Usefulness"}]} ```