ben dexter cooley
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small software tools

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in light of recent events, i am re-examining my relationship with software. for a few years now i have felt myself gravitating more to the analog. maybe because so much of my day job has been immersed in the digital.

but despite my luddite tendencies, technology allows me to do many things that used to feel impossible, or at the very least tedious. if i am going to use technology, i want to do so thoughtfully—one of the many impactful takeaways i took after reading How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. tech companies, more than anything, want your attention. they design their tools so that we mindlessly give it to them.

a few weeks back i uninstalled instagram from my phone, so i can only access it by desktop. this added bit of friction has been very freeing—i check in once a week or so, but no longer feel the compulsion to scroll on my phone. as a result i am reading more articles on my phone, which reminded me of a little utility i built to track the articles i save and read viaInstapaper.

i want software to be as small as possible in my personal life—no added bloat, no extra features. just small, text-based tools to do what i want.

in the nav of this site, there is now a "reading" page. on it is every article i have read on instapaper, along with my highlights (if any). there is no pagination for now, so it is a very long list. i started tracking in october of 2021.

it serves a small purpose: anyone can see what i have read recently, and the things that most resonated with me when i read it. i think you can learn something about what a person reads, so i find this interesting.

still figuring out how this approach will apply to other parts of my life, but for now it feels good to just do something small and useful.

i think that's what i want software to be actually: small and useful.