[EFFALO]

I felt that that the author was more concerned about ownership than short-term productivity or efficiency.

With ownership a different kind of productivity is evoked: knowing how (and why) every part goes together the way it does. This could lead to a flow state when managed effectively.

I do agree that these exercises could lead into the realm of yak shaving, but in this context we're talking about making personal tools vs tools for others to use. I think there's a big distinction between these two approaches.

[thesephist]

OP here -- I think you captured a lot of what I wanted to express. A lot of my DIY-ing is definitely about ownership: owning (1) my data completely, including how it's stored and backed up and (2) the future of these tools, so a SaaS provider can't suddenly decide next year that I'm no longer in their target market / most profitable customer segment.

Agree on the distinction between building for myself vs. others. There are a hundred things I'd have done differently, were I building for someone else.