Against the demo.
- Volume
- 01
- Paper
- 06
- Signed
- L. Aguirre
- Filed
- 2025-06-21
A demo is a performance. A production system is a structure. The two are different categories of object. The category error is the most common failure mode in the field.
Demos optimize for the first thirty seconds of a viewer’s attention. Structures optimize for the median Tuesday of operation. A demo can be authored in a week. A structure is the work of months.1
The studio does not give demos. It writes specifications. A reader who finishes the specification has done the work of receiving a demo and discarded none of it. A reader who watches a demo has done none of the work and will be required to do it later.
Against the demo. For the document.
A demo is also paid for by the audience, in attention. A structure is paid for by the studio, in time. The economics are inverted. ↩︎