I miss having a canvas. I miss having a place where I created something that is a reflection of my understanding.

The code used to be my canvas. But I suppose it never was an ideal canvas, because the code's primary purpose is to achieve a business objective, or make something work.

I want a really polished literate programming environment where I can slice up the code and add drawings and annotations, and it is all automatically kept in sync with the actual code. I could use this to record my own understanding. Teams could use this to collaborate and create documentation.

The code still matters, but the time for human hand crafted code seems to have ended. Humans still want and need to craft something though. We need to create something to solidify and record our understanding.

Humans need a place to write as a tool for thought, and if the code is no longer that place, we need something else--and if done well it can be better than the actual code.

And, again, I'm not talking about just a really great note taking app here. It needs to be interleaved with the code and kept in sync with the code.