The birth and death of a jam

Gather round. This is the true story of a unique piece of software, a music-making tool called Nudel. The contribution rules are simple: Anyone can change Nudel’s code in any way they want. All changes are instantly deployed. There are no rules except the code of conduct. Anything can happen, and everything will go wrong.

This unusual approach to collaboration led to one of the strangest pieces of software known to humanity. Discover the play-by-play of how Nudel’s undo button was removed, or how pasting was outlawed. Find out what Nudel’s infamous “MSN Messenger mode” is, and learn about how Nudel became the first computer program in the world with its own weather system.

As an experiment, Nudel is now finished. It was ceremoniously destroyed by some of its creators as part of a performance this year.

But what can we learn from its different frame of thinking?

What can we bring into our own practices as developers?

And what practices should we absolutely not adopt?

What parts of Nudel should remain unresurrected?