Although I read each proposed change, knowing the codebase deeply was much more challenging. When I write a new application myself, I'm building an elaborate house of cards in my head, a gossamer structure of interlinked ideas and goals. It's a story I'm telling myself in code—and ultimately, a story I share with users.

I am privileged in that I can make these choices. Not everyone is so…

What remains urgently in dispute are the boundaries of utility: what usefulness means, for whom, and under what conditions? At what cost and from whom are benefits derived, and how are benefits and risks distributed? What decisions are quietly removed from public deliberation and handed to automated systems controlled by corporations, governments, and other institutions? That people are using…