DESIGNING SOFTWARE FOR THINGS THAT ROT

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Fermento is a fermentation-tracking app that applies HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) food safety frameworks to home fermentation projects, treating the process as monitored infrastructure rather than simple cooking. The app uses phase-based state machines to evaluate measurements such as pH and humidity against context-specific constraints, automatically flagging deviations and generating compliance documentation for high-risk ferments like cured meats while remaining useful as a simple diary for forgiving projects like sauerkraut. Unlike typical software optimized for uptime and consistency, the system is designed around controlled drift and variance, tracking trends over time to help fermenters distinguish between harmless fluctuations and dangerous deviations.