General-purpose tools become expensive when their unused flexibility creates more operational work than the narrow problem they solve. Agentic workflows make purpose-built alternatives increasingly practical.
Complex products rarely arrive fully formed. The trick is not to prevent change, but to build a workflow that lets the product evolve without turning every discovery into a rewrite.
The tools matter, but the real advantage comes from turning business requirements into durable context, executable plans, verified work, and shared project memory.
A year of building a home with Andrea, caring for three small dogs, getting lost around Oregon, restoring old things and recovering parts of myself I had allowed to become much too small.