Notes on Building Tools You Actually Reuse
Most tools fail because they are overfit to a burst of motivation. The only tools I keep are the ones that stay understandable six months later.
Three practical rules
- Keep setup friction low enough to use on tired days.
- Prefer explicit files over hidden state.
- Treat naming as a first-class design task.
When in doubt, optimize for re-entry: how quickly can I remember what this was doing?