Software for an Audience of One

Like many of us, I’ve spent time looking for an app that works just the way I want it to. Lately, I’ve been building some of them myself.

I’ve built a to-do app, a workout app, and a cooperative restaurant selector for the fun of it. I built Switchboard to consolidate my calendars in one place, and Sidebar to help me catch things I want to learn about during conversations.

Good versions of these kinds of tools already exist. I built my own because none of them did exactly what I needed them to, and nothing more.

They’ve also saved me time and money. These are useful tools in my daily life, and AI coding agents made building them practical.

Getting the fit right

Choosing software usually involves accepting somebody else’s decisions about how it should work. That can be valuable. A well-designed application can show me a better way to accomplish something or give me structure in an area where I don’t have much experience.

Sometimes using a tool changes my mind about what I need. Other times, I know how I want to work and find myself repeatedly working around the application to get there. You may have an app like that: one you keep using even though the same few things bother you every time.

For years, I generally accepted that friction. Building and maintaining my own version would have taken too much work for the improvement I wanted.

Now the calculation is different. I can have a fairly specific need, build something to address it, and use it myself. Switchboard brings my calendars together. The to-do and workout apps fit my own requirements. The restaurant selector makes choosing somewhere to eat a cooperative activity.

None of those ideas needs to support a business to be worth my time.

Sidebar is another example. My work involves conversations across data science, software development, marketing technology, and other specialties. As many of us do, I regularly find myself talking with people who know much more than I do about the subject at hand. Someone mentions a term I don’t know, or something I need to revisit, and I want to follow up without losing track of the conversation.

I’ve had many versions of a second brain over the years. For this, I wanted help catching the things I needed to learn as they came up.

Sidebar surfaces topics during a conversation. I can open a short explanation, explore further, or pin something for later. It gives me a way to hold onto a subject while continuing to listen.

I don’t currently plan to release it. I wanted it for myself.

“And nothing more” is a requirement

A commercial application has to serve enough people to sustain the business. Features I never touch may be essential to somebody else. I understand why they’re there.

When I’m building for myself, I can stop when the application does what I need. My preferences don’t have to represent a market, and I don’t need to keep adding features to attract more users.

That makes the scope manageable. I can spend my effort on the parts I actually use.

There’s still work involved. I have to explain what I want, try what gets built, notice where it falls short, and maintain it. Coding agents have made that work manageable for more of the ideas I used to leave alone.

The time and money these tools have saved me matter here, too. Building them has been enjoyable, but I also get practical value from using them.

More of my ideas are worth trying

I’ve written about custom software becoming more accessible to businesses. These apps are the personal version of that change.

I can now consider building something without first making a case for why hundreds or thousands of people would want it. The benefit can be specific to my life: less time managing calendars, a tool that works the way I want, or something fun to use with other people.

For developers, this is an exciting and unsettling time to be alive. The tools opening up these possibilities are also putting pressure on how we earn a living. I feel both things.

But being able to build more of what we imagine is a revolutionary change. These little apps are my first examples. I’m excited to find out what else I can make and to see what other people create with the same opportunity.

We’re builders, visionaries, and explorers. We have ideas we’ve set aside because we lacked the time, the resources, or some piece of the knowledge to make them real. It’s worth pulling those ideas out again. We’re still discovering what’s possible.

Go create.