Except perhaps my wife…

…and some of her friends.

Here's the problem with every tool you've ever used:

They're designed for everyone, which means they're perfect for no one.

Safe features. Broad appeal. Zero personalization.

I've used every social media scheduling tool out there. And while they solve most common needs, I've always hated using them.

So I built my own. A totally unique, all-encompassing content/social media app for me personally.

One dashboard, powered by AI at every turn (while leaving all the creativity and writing up to me), that fuels my blog, my email list, all my social content, and my LinkedIn posting.

I call it my Content Crusher (working title, I’m still stuck in the ‘90s).

Will it scale? No idea. But it's insanely useful to me personally. And there's nothing on the market that could possibly replace it for me.

Here's what I’m realizing:

I'm not alone. Thousands of people are building apps like this for themselves right now.

And this is what AI promises each of us: the ability to create highly custom tools for our use case that no SaaS product could ever touch.

The future of productivity isn't one-size-fits-all.

It's software built for an audience of one.

Think back to the websites of the 90s, in all their glory. Truly, works of art all.

But today, you wouldn’t be caught dead creating anything like that.

Now consider some of the best albums of the 60s and earlier. Fantastic records for their time.

But today, you listen to a “re-mastered” version of your favorite records to hear those bass frequencies that were practically non-existent in records before the 80s.

I don’t know about you, but I find myself increasingly frustrated with web apps that were built 20+ years ago. Think Microsoft products, behemoths like Salesforce, or even marketing SaaS apps from the 2010s like HootSuite.

All of these projects were built in a different time.

And there’s only so much that re-branding and slapping on a new coat of paint can do—the architecture is fundamentally… old.

We’re heading into an era where there is enormous potential in “re-mastering” the internet.

This means going beyond surface-level cosmetics and rebuilding apps using AI and modern functionality to make them enjoyable to use in the modern age.

If you ever encounter an app that theoretically does everything you want it to but you hate using it, you are witnessing this unmet need for yourself.

There are millions of bakeries in the world. Some are good, some are bad.

And every one of them uses the same essential ingredients.

Flour, water, butter, sugar, salt, yeast… Some combination of these staples makes everything you love, everything you hate, and everything you think is just ok.

In the world of code, the ingredients are just as simple.

You have user interfaces (how users interact with data), APIs (how data platforms talk to each other), and you have databases (how data is stored).

Every app you’ve ever hated, liked, or loved is essentially a combination of these ingredients.

From Spotify to Notion to any SaaS product you can name, they all use the same essential ingredients.

And AI lets us build these platforms and better understand data contained within databases.

That’s it.

The problems that AI can solve are exactly the same as the problems software can solve in general: Anything that can be solved with a UI, APIs, and databases.

These ingredients were off-limits to the general population until recently. Closely guarded secrets of a brilliant, gate-keeping, coding elite.

But now we all have access to these tools.

It’s no more than the mastery of a few simple ingredients. It’s no less than the ability to bake anything we can dream of.

A decade ago, the race for the easiest website builders was raging.

From Squarespace to Wix to WordPress (and now Webflow), the trend was clear: Make it easier for people who don’t know how to code to make a website.

While these tools helped millions of people get out there, they were never the best. How could they be?

The trade-off for their ease was bloated code bases, tons of plug-ins, and a hornets’ nest of issues thinly veiled by a deceptively simple user interface.

But the real pros?

They were using React, Next.js, and custom CMSs like Contentful, etc.

The real pros weren’t afraid to use an API or two and get their hands dirty.

My agency began as a WordPress development firm, in large part because 25 years ago, the first languages I learned were HTML, PHP, and JavaScript—the core frameworks for WordPress.

But I always admired the “real” apps that were lightning fast using more advanced tech stacks.

This envy is what led me to transition my company to these tech stacks a couple of years ago.

But what I didn’t know was that AI would make coding these “difficult” languages easier (and faster) for us than the alternatives.

I never dreamed that coding in the best tech stack would also be the easiest.

But today, thanks to AI, it’s actually much easier for me to prototype and execute a complicated idea in Next.js—with APIs everywhere—than it is to use a drag-and-drop builder like Webflow.

When the best solution is also the easiest? You know you are in an exciting time.

A recent article says that Accenture is planning on “exiting” staff who can’t be upskilled on AI.

This means, quite simply, folks who are too stubborn to embrace technological change.

“The only constant is change” - Heraclitus

I would argue that the fear of this tech goes up proportionately with one’s lack of knowledge in how to actually use these tools.

If AI is a concept that might get you fired, you’ll hate it.

If AI is a tool that lets you build literally any software application you can imagine, you’ll be excited.

Upskilling isn’t scary. It’s not mean. It’s not complex.

It’s just about approaching these tools with curiosity instead of fear.

It’s about attempting to go beyond just typing into Claude and using them to actually build software.

This is where the magic happens.

This is where the next phase of your growth occurs.