From Personal Computer to Personal Software
Hyper-customization level 2: the "built-for-now" era of software is here, where software becomes irrelevant - compared to the goal you want to achieve with it.
A few years ago you did not have much choice: either purchased a piece of software - pre-created for a specific purpose (long live App Stores) - or found some open source package and tried to make it work.
There was not really a third option. Oh, wait. There was: you asked a friend (the "IT guy") or paid a contractor to build something specifically for you.
But nah, for mere mortals that was not really an option. Again, you either found something that more or less fit your needs, or did some research and tried to make an open source tool do what you wanted it to do.
Until recently.
The accidental "side project"
Today I woke up - it's a Sunday, had some free time - and while I was still under the weather, despite the illness setting in, I grabbed my laptop and tried to make the next moves in various projects. Despite all the drawbacks, I succeeded.
As a "side effect" of one of my software projects I accidentally built a tool that does a full security assessment of my laptop, produces reports, backs up secrets and prepares a full back-up plan including all the scripts, specifically designed for my current setup and purposes.
OK, it was not me who wrote all the lines, it was my AI buddy who did all the magic and heavy lifting. In approximately 20 minutes.
All I had to do was open one more text file, note down all of my requirements - carefully crafted, mind you - about my system, what I want to achieve, in what format do I want the output, where should the main focus be, how to manage sensitive files, etc.
15 minutes later the first working "draft" was ready. Checked it. It was almost perfect.
After two rounds of back and forth I had the documentation, 13 scripts, and 13 reports about all aspects of my current setup, describing what do I need to do step by step if I ever wanted to reinstall my machine from scratch and have to reinstall and restore all tools and configuration to be able to continue work.
At the end I also asked for a summary to get the key details.
It was a "side quest" :), not specifically the core part of any of my ongoing projects, but man, it was complete. The AI buddy took initiative and carefully divided the output into sections, separating out files which likely contain sensitive data (API keys mostly), in case I ever want to share this piece of software, including the reports as examples - so that I can avoid accidentally sharing the secrets.
Sharing is caring
Do I want to share this piece of software with the rest of the world? Because it's so cool!?
This time last year I would have thought, hell, yeah! Someone might benefit from such a comprehensive tool and reporting capability.
Today? I'm not so sure.
I CAN share it of course, it's super easy, upload to Github and make the repository public.
But a more important question arises: is it worth doing it any more?
Yes, I spent time on it (well, not much of my time) and the AI tool spent some time on it too. I burned some tokens for sure, but the resulting software is so specific to my needs, it's hyper-customized.
Fast, cheap and good
Here is today's question:
- In this new world of fast, cheap, good quality software, is it worth thinking about a broader usage pattern any more?
Or, from now on everyone is better off building their own castle of personal software?
If you are interested in the continuation of this train of thought, please check out:
