Avi Bryant is the Steve Albini of web development. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Bryant is a Smalltalk programmer famous for creating Seaside, a web development framework that reverses a lot of the common assumptions shared by its peers and competitors; Albini is a musician and record producer famous for his uncompromising focus on making recordings that serve as authentic documents of bands’ natural sounds.
Albini and Bryant share a singular style of self-presentation that combines a penchant for no-punches-pulled expression with a kind of gregarious grouchiness to build a strong sense of their own authenticity and authority. This style lets them reject much of the common wisdom in their respective fields — making everyone else seem simple minded (and possibly evil) for not doing so — while retaining a measure of folksy charm.
They even sound and look a little alike (if you can make your mind’s eye bridge the beard/glasses divide).
Tagged: albini, bryant, seaside, electrical, chicago, convergence