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I have no idea where AI will take the software world. Some say we'll have more software, malleable software. Many say the cost of software will go to zero.

All these things might happen. But as a small business operator, I don't want more software; I want less. Each small business will have one data store, a central AI with memory -- a single source of truth. The business brain can use other software with tools and agents like Operator. The day I don't have to deal with 143 saas apps, I'll be happy.*

My business has built canoes since 2007, and I have always built my own software to operate the business. That seems a bit crazy, and it is. Most shouldn't do it. But I like to. The total addressable market of my entire industry is $10-20 million. And I'm the only company to keep design, manufacturing, and sales in-house. Cheaper labor, larger scale, and superior supply chains in China have squeezed us tighter every year for the last decade. And that's not even mentioning that I operate in Hawai'i, where logistics are complex, the cost of electricity is 3x, and overhead is 2x the US mainland.

Sometimes, the only way to make it work is to treat my time as free and save that $20 a month. I want to move from Shopify to Helcim to save that 1%. Netsuite is too expensive. I don't even consider my canoe designs and intellectual property particularly valuable. The people and the factory building my canoes create value.

As software becomes a commodity, more and more knowledge-based businesses will feel the squeeze that manufacturing has felt. More value will inevitably be squeezed into this layer of people and infrastructure. Is the end game that we're all metaphorically farmers? Slowly suffocated down to zero margin? And occasional success comes from luck, good taste, and distribution. Or just meme virality?

*Ironic as a blog on my own saas app. I have that problem where you're only happy with things you made: a superpower and cancer all at once. I wasn't satisfied with Roam Research. I'm too cheap for Notion. But Grug Notes is all my own.