Sometime during the summer of 2009, I think, a Boxee user reached out over email to report a problem with a feed for one of the apps I created. I can’t recall the problem or find the original email, but that user and I talked for a few minutes nearly every other week for the next five years.
Sometimes Gavin would share a link to something going on in the Smart TV space or a particular video he thought was funny. Sometimes he would share his frustration with a particular bug or celebrate a Yankee misfortune. These IM conversations would usually only last a few minutes, but over the years it became a regular part of the background of my progression as a creator. “Oh, this is totally a Gavin feature,” I’d think while adding pitch data popups to the MLB.tv app.
He added a personal, human consideration to the wide scope of calculation every programmer sums in the creation of software. Gavin shared his experience with the stuff I built from when they were fun weekend projects to building a consultancy practice around Smart TV to joining Boxee full time and launching the Box to well after I left and support for the device ended.
This weekend Gavin - whom I still haven’t met in person - let me know he switched his media center, meaning my work won’t be occupying the space under his television for the first time in a long while.
I wanted to share it as it was an incredibly kind note and a reminder of how our work as developers can endure.
from: Gavin to: Rob date: Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 5:52 PM subject: Sad day….
Thanks for creating something awesome…. It’s still up there with the best, but it was time to let it go. Replaced it with an Amazon Fire TV running xbmc.
We’ll keep in touch on to the next journey..
My reply:
from: Rob to: Gavin date: Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 6:29 PM subject: Re: Sad day….
Thank you so much for sharing your journey with this thing I worked on with me. I am dead serious - I have never gotten the kind of perspective on anything I’ve worked on like what you’ve provided these past five years.
Thanks for the occasional IMs, emails and links you’ve sent while you used Boxee going from the desktop software to the device you’re saying goodbye to today. I learned a whole lot about what matters in building a product people care about.
I really hope I build something else that is this important to you.
Hope you won’t mind if I share this story on my blog without your name.
