Most software is fast food. AI lets you cook your own apps.
Building software for yourself is becoming normal
I was heading to the gym the other day and downloaded an interval training app on app store.
Within a few minutes, I knew I wouldn’t use it again. Ads popping up left and right. Lagging UX. A cluttered interface that made something simple feel complicated.
I just wanted a clean timer.
My frustration turned into a simple decision: build my own app.
No ads. No tracking. No unnecessary features. Just the exact flow I wanted when I’m staring at a countdown to exercise. I build it with Claude and published the interval timer publicly on App store. It solved a tiny problem, but probably not only for me.
That’s when something clicked.
The shift from consumer to builder
For most of my life, I was mainly a consumer of software. I downloaded apps. I adapted to their logic. I tolerated the bad UX.
If app was good at 80%, I accepted the remaining 20%.
But AI changes that.
The cost of building something small and personal has dropped to zero. You no longer need to be a software engineer to translate an idea into a working product. The knowledge barrier is not there anymore. It’s only a product thinking and taste.
Instead of adapting yourself to software requirements, you can start adapting software to your needs.
Code as a food
I see code the same way I see food.
There was a time when I didn’t know how to cook. I loved food, but I only consumed it. Fast food was easy. Eating out was easy.
But it was expensive. And disconnected. I wasn’t thinking about ingredients, quality, or what actually suited my body.
At some point, I had to learn how to cook. Not because I wanted to become a chef, but because I wanted more control. Once I understood the basics, everything changed. I became more intentional about what I consume. I could personalize meals. Adjust portions. Choose ingredients.
Now replace food with software.
Right now, most people live on digital fast food. Mass-market apps designed for everyone and therefore tailored to no one. They work, but not exactly the way you want. But more the way the companies want you to consume.
AI makes it possible for more people to “cook” their own apps. Not everyone will. Many will still choose easy path and convenience. And that’s fine.
But for those who care, the option now exists to cook your own app.
There will be more fast food and more home cooking
Some people worry that AI will flood the market with low-quality apps.
It probably will.
But look at food metaphore again. The existence of fast food didn’t stop people from learning how to cook. In fact, it pushed many to care more about quality.
The same will happen with software. I think here will be thousands of generic AI-built apps. But there will also be a wave of personal tools, small utilities, and niche products built by people who simply wanted something better for themselves.
Not optimized for growth. Just useful for themselves and for everyone.
That’s leveraged open source.
taste matters more than credentials
My wife used have her own blog. In her teenage years, she played with HTML and CSS. She developed taste. An eye for what feels good digitally.
But she never wrote code. Never opened GitHub. Never designed in Figma.
I showed her v0 last year.
She started experimenting. Playing with it. Testing ideas. Connecting Supabase. Reaching credits limits. And for my birthday, she built an app for me.
No tutorials. No technical background. Just her curiosity to learn more.
In a world where AI handles much of the execution, direction becomes key element. Knowing what feels right. What should exist. What’s unnecessary.
The bottleneck shifts from “can you code this?” to “should this exist and how should it feel?”
Personalized software is not a new normal
This isn’t about everyone becoming a startup founder.
It’s about more people becoming builders of their own tools.
When creation becomes easier, more people will express themselves digitally not through social media but through building useful products. Just like blogging make everything personal back in 2000s. I am optimistic.
We’re moving from an era of consuming software to an era of shaping it.
If you care about craft, about shipping products, about turning ideas into something real, there has never been a better time.
An idea + taste + AI is enough to start.
Personalized software isn’t a niche or a trend. It’s what naturally happens when tools become accessible without technical knowledge.
And that shift benefits the people who love shaping the ideas into real things.