[sashagim]

Some contrudictions in the article. Yes, Todo apps were always cheap to build, but some became large companies. Yes, the ai made the easy part easier. So why should the landscape change? Yes, technical people can build tools for themselves. Do they all really want to? What about non-technical people? Also, note - it's tools, not products. Tools help me achieve a specific goal. Products help me work better in a way I've not necessarily thought about myself.

I do think one claim is spot on - as production costs go down customization becomes cheap. This makes it economically viable to build products, especially more complex ones, for niche markets. Hubspot for medical? No problem. MailChimp for music clubs? You got it.

Ultimately, the value remained in the same place - create something people are willing to pay for. The economics might have changed, certainly for software development job market - but honestly, as a developer myself, I've always felt coding is not hard enough or valuable enough for the society to justify the insanely high salaries.

[Adrig]

> Todo apps were always cheap to build, but some became large companies

The point is that simple apps like these have just become insanely competitive to distribute, and it's best not to think of it as mini businesses

> Tools help me achieve a specific goal. Products help me work better in a way I've not necessarily thought about myself.

For me a product = a packaged set of tools.

What was interesting with the micro-saas wave is that a lot of people started to build products around one simple tool. It worked because sometimes a well-crafted one is better unbundled. Here's one example that thrived on this premise: https://www.bannerbear.com/