This American Life recently profiled Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago. The episode featured one of the most stiring sound bites in my recent memory – a portion of a debate that served as Washington’s coming-out party. It was easy to imagine myself listening to the minute-long segment on the radio and knowing instantly that whether I liked it our not, this longshot is going to win.

I love these moments – when I hear/see/do something new, and know instantly that I won’t return to the old way. They are the reason I build web applications. Getting an email from someone that used one of our applications and experienced this is amazingly gratifying. It’s easy to forget that this happens regularly for many of us in the web industry, but other professions experience this much less frequently.

Why do you build web applications?