It’s a good feeling when you understand that your pool of tools is ready and finished. You don’t search for better alternatives, you master existing tools.

My pool is described here, since 2025 – only three changes:

• notes – Obsidian now;
• browser – changed to Waterfox, FF fork;
• music – added Navidrome/Amperfy (local collection streaming).

Those tools are mine. Maybe I’m not an expert in all of them, but I know pros and cons, I know workarounds and limitations. And I know that new tool wouldn’t be perfect at all.

Also these are not default apps provided by vendor. It’s my list. Some apps are here because of historical reasons (if I chose now, maybe I would have chosen Raycast instead of Alfred), but they are all battle-tested by time and task. Their limitations make me look at my work from a different angle, to adapt. And it’s ok.

Now, with AI spreading, many people say that there is a new age of personal software. Anyone can make an app for themselves. And while I agree with the proposition, I truly believe that most of this personal software would be clunky.

Yes, it would be exactly for you, but we all know how many products were bloated with enormous amount of features. Also, in terms of UX/design it would be mediocre, most of us don’t have the experience to fix this.

Yet, it’s not so bad. For many people personalized logic is way better than perfect UX. I’m just saying, those apps still wouldn’t be ideal, and some old software is still better to use. I already made some apps for myself, but nothing serious. In most apps I see limitations not in the apps themselves, but in my energy, time and so on.

Having my app pool finished is a good feeling. No app reviews, searching, tweaking (yes, at some point even that becomes irrelevant). No more optimization just for the sake of optimization. Really good.