After a decade in software, I have developed a sharp sensitivity to friction. The low-grade friction that accumulates when software slowly moves away from the problems it was meant to solve. Over the past few weeks, I decided to remove some of that friction by building tools I use every day with the help of LLMs.

It started with Postman. It used to be a straightforward REST client. Over time, it became a platform with workspaces, notifications, accounts, and background processes. At some time, I realized I was spending more time closing popups than sending requests. What I needed was simple: a fast, local REST client with collections. No accounts, telemetry, or collaboration to debug localhost.

Then it hit me: the cost of development has collapsed. The scaffolding and the repetitive parts that used to drain late nights are now largely automated or one prompt away.

The realization extended beyond one app. Many of the tools and websites I rely on daily have expanded in scope and quietly lost focus.

At the same time, the economics of building small software have changed. You can sit down with an idea and have something usable the same day.

If you need a background remover or a JSON validator, you usually end up on a site covered in ads and watermarks, where they try to sell you an AI-powered subscription for a task that takes 10 lines of code. So I started there. Drag an image in, get a transparent PNG out in seconds. A smart JSON validator/formatter that tells me what is wrong with my JSON.

From there, the list grew fast. A task monitor that lets me kill processes by name or by port without digging through trees. An Image Viewer and MS Paint-like app that opens instantly instead of slowly indexing the universe. A raw web reader that strips JS entirely and forces static HTML. A minimal git client that does just the basics - status, diff, stage/unstage, commit, and push/pull. A local network inspector that shows outgoing requests in real time.

Mobile was next. On iOS, I started with a minimal Reddit and Hacker News client. Yes, there are minimal apps for many of these use cases. But minimal does not mean the app isn’t doing any tracking. The question is not that they are malicious. It is whether their incentives are aligned with mine.

For a Reddit or Hacker News client, I want no background sync, no login, and no popups. Just the comments with easy navigation. On Photos, I do not need the Featured, Memories, or Shared tabs. I just want to see all the photos and albums. So, I built a simple gallery that does two things and nothing else.

The long-term goal is simple. I want most of the tools I consume to be mine. It’s not that I distrust third-party software; it is that I know what I want. No ads. No tracking. No update nagging. Offline by default unless the job requires network access.

LLMs have gotten better at producing code, but they still follow patterns and trends. Experience still matters. Knowing when to discard a suggestion is where judgment shows up.

And that is enough! If there is a tiny tool in your life that annoys you every time you use it, the cost to replace it has never been lower. Build it. Make it yours.