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.