Building Zed: A Code Editor for Performance and Collaboration with Nathan Sobo

Nathan Sobo, Founder of Zed Industries, is a founding member of the team that built Atom at GitHub. With nine years of experience under his belt, Nathan made the bold decision to leave GitHub and start a new venture: building Zed, a code editor that captures his vast knowledge and ambitious goals.
Nathan opens up about the frustrations he faced with web technology, specifically Electron, which was initially developed to construct Atom but ended up being a resource-hungry burden. Zed, on the other hand, aims to be a more streamlined and efficient code editor by harnessing the power of Rust. Of course, this path was not without its challenges, as Nathan candidly shares the steep learning curve and unique ownership model that came with using Rust. But with determination and a deep understanding of Rust's capabilities, Nathan and his team created an editor with enough promise to secure funding in just two weeks.

In this episode, Nathan talks to Robbie and Chuck about his experience working with Atom, his motivation for building Zed, and the challenges of analyzing community feedback.

Key Takeaways

[00:31] - Introduction to Nathan Sobo.

[02:51] - A whiskey review: Redbreast Kentucky Oak Edition.

[14:12] - Why Nathan created Zed.

[27:55] - Future plans for Zed.

[43:01] - Where the name Zed comes from.

[48:08] - Nathan’s views on crypto.

[53:39] - Nathan's time in Italy.

Quotes

[17:52] - “The learning curve for Rust was, I describe it as a vertical cliff with snakes nesting in the rocks biting me as I ascended it.” ~ Nathan Sobo

[39:11] - “If I look for 20 miles in any direction, I see shit that would be a really good idea to add to Zed.” ~ Nathan Sobo

[42:31] - “I didn’t lick my finger and figure out which way the wind was blowing to start working on Zed. I did it because I wanted to do it, and I didn’t even know why I wanted to do it.” ~ Nahan Sobo

Links

Nathan Sobo Twitter
Nathan Sobo LinkedIn
Zed Industries
GitHub
Rust
Redbreast Kentucky Oak Edition
Kentucky Owl
Nike
Whiskey Advocate’s Top 2 Whiskeys of 2022
Four Roses Bourbon
Teeling Whiskey
Emacs
Chromium
Chrome DevTools
Visual Studio Code
Chrome
Tuple
Pop
Slack
Warp
Electron JS
Twitter
Flutter
JSON
React
Web Assembly
Tree-sitter
Hacker News
Costco
Kirkland
Facebook
Vue
Pulp Fiction
Svelte
PHP
Ember
GPT-4
RenderATL 2023
Hot Ones
Airbnb
Duolingo
Campari
Amaro Nonino
Fernet-Branca
Aperol
Bud Light
Avignonesi

Connect with our hosts

Robbie Wagner
Chuck Carpenter
Ship Shape

Subscribe and stay in touch

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google Podcasts
Whiskey Web and Whatnot

Top-Tier, Full-Stack Software Consultants

This show is brought to you by Ship Shape. Ship Shape’s software consultants solve complex software and app development problems with top-tier coding expertise, superior service, and speed. In a sea of choices, our senior-level development crew rises above the rest by delivering the best solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, and other fast-growing industries. Check us out at shipshape.io.

---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/message