I saw a new product declaring that software should be free, simple, and unintrusive. I agree in spirit, but the last thing I think people want is more of it. After a lifetime of building it, I believe in its power, but not its excess. Like plastic, it has piled up everywhere, cluttering the very world it was meant to improve.

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I saw a post online today announcing Wabi as “the first personal software platform.” The message was full of conviction: software should be free, simple, and unintrusive. It promised freedom from ads, from tracking, from notifications, from dark patterns. It was, in every sense, a manifesto for better software.

But I couldn’t help chuckling to myself: “You know what I need? More software!” said no one, ever. Don’t get me wrong. I admire the enthusiasm behind projects like this. I’ve spent my entire adult life making software, living fully inside the build process full of bugs, deadlines, excitement, and late-night breakthroughs. And I still believe in the beauty of what software can do. But belief in the power of software does not mean I want more of it.

The truth is, we already live in a world with too much software. We have apps for everything and they all claim to make life easier. But instead of simplicity, we got clutter. Instead of freedom, we got another layer of obligation. The problem isn’t that software costs money. It’s that it costs attention. It costs time. It costs presence.

When every new app promises to “make life better,” what it often means is “make life more digital.” But what if the best thing software could do for us now is to stop multiplying? Just because everyone’s building software doesn’t mean everyone wants more of it. Like plastic, it piles up quietly and conveniently at first, until it’s everywhere and impossible to get rid of, slowly choking the environment it was meant to improve.

Maybe the next frontier isn’t in building more software, but in making less of it. Or at least, making software that finally knows when to get out of the way. Because if we’re honest, the most revolutionary feature we could invent right now is the absence of more apps.

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