Our tools are failing us

You download Notion to organize your thoughts. Now you're organizing Notion. You get Superhuman to process email faster. Now you're learning keyboard shortcuts instead of processing email. You install a habit tracker to build better habits. Now checking the habit tracker is the habit.

Where did we go wrong?

We abandoned the Unix philosophy. Do one thing well. Compose together.

Tools used to be focused. A hammer drives nails. A text editor edits text. You pick the right tool for the job, and they work together naturally.

Then software tools started trying to be everything. We optimize for features over composability. The app with more features wins the comparison chart, even when most users need 10% of them. Each feature adds complexity for everyone, even those who'll never use it.

What we need are focused tools that do one thing exceptionally well and interoperate cleanly. A notes app that's just notes. A task manager that's just tasks. They speak the same language, share the same data formats, plug together naturally.

The Unix philosophy survived for 50 years because it got something right about how humans work with tools. Small, focused, composable. Each tool pulling its weight without trying to be the whole toolbox.

We need to build software like that again.