A Thanksgiving Note: Tough love for the product we rely on šŸ¦ƒ

Off-Topic
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Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating!

Today is all about gratitude, and I want to start by stating the obvious: I am incredibly thankful for Coda. It didnā€™t just change how I handle data; it reshaped my entire career.

But as we all know, when you truly love something, you donā€™t just offer praiseā€”you offer protection. And sometimes, protecting a product means having an honest conversation about where it is heading. My concern isnā€™t born out of frustration, but out of a desire to see Coda win.

I wrote this piece because I believe Coda is endangering itself by chasing the wrong metrics. We need to stop worrying about the ā€œlow floorā€ and remember that this tool was built to shatter the ceiling.

Here is my take on how the ā€œExcel Killerā€ lost its way, and why we need to steer it back.

https://medium.com/p/bdcab7c6c899

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Iā€™m intrigued this is considered ā€œOff-Topicā€. It is totally On-Topic. Christiaan raises serious issues that we Coda lovers must contend with. Grammarly and SuperHuman are great but not vital. Coda is a vital core platform. Its power and usefulness must be preserved and amplified. More importantly, its power and value must be presented to the world of users. Where are the ads? Where are the User Guides? Where is Coda for Dummies? I do not want Coda to wither away and be subsumed. I do not want to go back to writing macros. Even in my workflow world, Coda is still at the heart of everything I do. Read Christiaanā€™s note and think about it. Is management listening?

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I couldnā€™t have said it better, @Doug_Loud. ā€œGreat but not vitalā€ is the perfect distinction.

Superhuman and Grammarly are passengers; Coda is the engine.

I saw @Bill_French weighed in with his ā€œfuneralā€ for the workshop, but I think that misses the mark. We donā€™t need to bury the tool; we need to accept what it is.

My main argument in this new post is that a well-designed high ceiling actually works to the benefit of the average user. When we accept that Coda is an Engineā€”built by Architects to be used by Teamsā€”everything gets clearer.

That said, it is easier to criticise than to offer concrete solutions. My goal is to actually contribute to Codaā€™s success (and this new Superhuman chapter). So, while this post diagnoses the problem, the final blog (Part 3) will focus entirely on a viable roadmap for the future.

Here is the deep dive on why the ā€œLow Floorā€ was a trap, and why we need to embrace the Engine:

https://huizer.medium.com/chasing-the-ghost-of-notion-codas-trap-95c0842cb390?

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