More or Less · Topics · Episode #164
Build Your Own OS: When Parents Can Rewrite Their Kids' Software
Clip from the full recording, 32:26–35:07 · download mp4 · watch at this point on YouTube
Brit's orthogonal idea: agentic tools let people design their own operating systems, so parents could build their kids' software stack and control access at the OS level. Dave calls it the end of software-in-a-box; Sam warns customizable software mostly gets customized toward vice.
Asked to close the topic, Brit expands it instead. The new hubbub in Silicon Valley is that making agentic apps is passé; the next thing is building your own agentic operating system. If you don’t need iOS and the App Store or Android and Google Play, parents can assemble their own children’s software stacks and lock out YouTube or Roblox at the OS level, where kids can’t skirt around it.
Dave says it’s not an unreasonable long-term idea. Part of why parents can’t enforce their own ideas of good parenting is the structure of software itself: for 30 years software came in a box and you couldn’t change it. Now you can prompt and change it, Sam and Dave both run their own stuff on their phones, and in a few years you may just tell the phone to get rid of all of it. Sam embraces and extends with a caveat: give everyone customizable software and most humans ask for more vice, not more restraint, the way nobody asks for a weaker marijuana strain. Dave’s response: fine for adults; the point is what parents want for kids.
Key points
- Brit: agentic apps are passé; the frontier is personal operating systems that don't need the App Store or Google Play.
- Parents could build their kids' software stack and block platforms at the OS level rather than inside each app.
- Dave: software has been an unchangeable box for 30 years; prompting to change your own software ends that.
- Sam: customizable software will mostly be customized toward more vice, not less.
- Dave: that's fine for adults; the OS-level control matters for what parents can enforce.
Where they landed
Quotes
“What if you can design your own operating system and you don't need iOS and the App Store or Android and Google Play?”— Brit
“We've lived in a world for 30 years where software is put in a box and delivered to you. We're moving into a new world where you can actually just prompt and change your software.”— Dave
“If you said all your software is now customizable, the humans will be like: more boobs. Customizable software is not gonna lead to restraint.”— Sam
Suggested tweets
Brit Morin’s idea: skip the App Store entirely — parents design their kids’ own operating system and control access at the OS level
Tweet this →“We’ve lived in a box for 30 years. Now you can just prompt and change your software.” — Dave Morin on the end of software-in-a-box
Tweet this →Sam’s rebuttal: give humans customizable software and they won’t customize it toward restraint — “more boobs,” not less
Tweet this →All topics · Full episode #164 + transcript · Subscribe on YouTube · Spotify