What I have learned
This manifesto grew out of about five months of “spare time” spent trying to unenshittify my life. I now have everyday apps running on ancient computers like my iPhone 5 and iMac G4. That success has convinced me that, without enshittification, everyday apps could offer better user experiences and run on nearly any computer built since 2010.
What is an everyday app? A basic native application that fetches user data from a web API, stores it locally, displays it in a UI, and lets the user change and synchronize it. That describes every chat app, every doomscrolling social media app, every “AI” app, and pretty much any other app except games and apps for producing audio or video. I am pretty confident these apps account for 99% of the time you spend on your phone.
What I refuse
- I refuse to accept that everyday apps require modern hardware
- I refuse to accept that everyday apps require 300 MB of human-made slop
- I refuse to accept being denied access to my own data
- I refuse to accept digital experiences that are actively hostile to my goals
- I refuse to carry a 7-inch supercomputer merely to chat and doomscroll
What I believe
- I believe that users should decide what code runs on their computers
- I believe that everyday apps can run GREAT on retro hardware
- I believe that a GREAT everyday app can fit in a 5 MB binary
- I believe that my data is my data and I can use it where and how I want
- I believe that GREAT experiences help me achieve my goals
- I believe that I can create my own GREAT experiences
What I accept
- I accept that I cannot fix the modern app and web ecosystems
- I accept that I cannot force Apple to give users control of their own data
- I accept that the apps I create are not 100% feature-complete
- I accept that the apps I create are not 100% bug-free
- I accept that AI slop is neither beautiful nor pleasant for humans to read
- I accept that AI slop is not free
What I will do
- I will build my own apps for my own devices
- I will make my data accessible to my own apps
- I will use the devices I want to use
- I will make AI slop apps outperform human slop apps in speed, stability, and focus
- I will use AI to write MOST of my code
- I will compile ALL of my code