How I Built A Task Management Tool For Almost Nothing | How I wrote the notes app of my dreams (no coding required)

Mike Masnick over at TechDirt:

This is the core problem with all productivity software: you’re renting someone else’s vision of how work should happen. When that vision doesn’t match yours, tough shit. You adapt or you leave. But you never get to actually control the tool.

Harry McCracken over at Fast Company:

For years, I’ve had a secret ambition tucked away somewhere near the back of my brain. It was to write a simple note-taking app—one that wouldn’t be overwhelmed with features and that would reflect my own mental filing system.

These two stories were published fairly close together.

I think this is going to be a huge use case for AI. Similar to how video production originally had a big barrier to entry, only movie studios or television studios capable of producing content. Then YouTube happened, followed by TikTok, and now anyone with a phone can make compelling videos that millions of people watch.

I think the same thing is going to happen with software. Currently it takes a lot of know how — understanding programming, maybe how to host software on the internet, how to run and manage databases. AI can change all that. Bespoke apps, created by the people who are going to use them. Functionality custom tailored to their needs and wants.

Imagine telling your phone that you want an app that will keep track of the books you read, or the things you have to do, or the appointments you need to attend, or that you want an app that does all three of those things! And your phone just creates it and iterates on it with you until it is just right for you.

The App Store changed the way software was developed and the way people bought bought that software. I think this has the potential to change all that again. Users, with the help of AI, making apps that work just the way they want them.