Graham Lee (via Ole Begemann):

All of this represented a helpfulness and humility on the part of the applications makers: we do not know everything you want to do. We do know some things you might want to do: we’ll let you combine them and mash them up – “rip, mix and burn” as they used to say – making you more satisfied and our stuff more useful.

And in a follow-up on the paradox of scripting:

The message given off by the state of scripting is that scripting is programming, programming is a specialist pursuit, therefore regular folk should not be shown scripting nor given access to its power. They should rely on the technomages to magnanimously grant them the benefits of computing.

Letting users combine individual applications and web services can unlock the power of computers as a bicycle for the minds. Imagine the impact this could have if it was intuitive for a larger audience than just programmers¹.

1. Automator, Yahoo Pipes (RIP), IFTTT, Workflow are steps in the right direction. ↩