I stopped paying $89/month for broken apps and built my own in 48 hourst

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

I had 37 unread notifications across 8 productivity apps.

Each one solving 30% of my problem while creating 70% more complexity.

Three dogs at my feet, conference call on mute, scrolling through yet another onboarding flow asking me to "customize my experience," I realized something:

The perfect app for my brain doesn't exist because no company would build it.

Who's going to create a productivity app based on Jim Rohn's 1950s philosophy? Who's going to build a task manager that locks certain items while refreshing others? Who's going to add pattern recognition that tells me Tuesday is my resistance day, not my busy day?

Nobody. Until I did it myself.

In 48 hours, using Lovable.dev and Claude, I built exactly what I wanted:

  • Five daily prompts based on principles that actually matter to me
  • Note tracking that revealed I use "too busy" as a lie (but only on Tuesdays)
  • Complete control over my data - I can query it, export it, analyze it
  • Zero features I didn't ask for

Let me be clear...I'm not building the next ChatGPT or creating Google here. These are micro personal solutions to personal problems. A custom meal planner that knows your actual constraints. A CRM that matches your exact sales process. A learning system designed for how YOUR brain processes information.

Small tools. Big impact.

And it cost me $45/month in tools to become a builder vs the $89/month I was paying to remain a consumer.

That $25 Lovable subscription? It enables unlimited apps. Not one. Not three. Every micro solution I'll ever need.

The economics of personal software just flipped. What used to cost $100,000 and a dev team now costs a weekend and the ability to explain what you want.

You don't need to code. You need to think clearly about what would actually help you.

I wrote the whole story here, including exactly how to build your first app this weekend: https://irreplaceablepositioning.substack.com/p/the-app-that-doesnt-exist-until-you​

Fair warning...

Once you build your first tool that works exactly how your brain works, you'll never go back to adapting your workflow to someone else's software.

The app you need doesn't exist.

Until tomorrow.

Stay Curious,

P.S. Yes, my text was unreadable brown-on-yellow for an hour. Some components didn't style properly. Each fix took minutes, not days of support tickets. Perfection is overrated. Shipping is everything.

Check out my SubStack to find the...

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