From Paper to Software

Before software, humanity relied on paper to perform work.

Software was a clear upgrade: more powerful, resilient, accessible, and collaborative. The speed and scale at which we could work reached unimaginable levels.

Today, software is everywhere. It’s the interface used by 2 billion people to navigate their daily tasks. Even offline businesses run on software. It’s the backbone of modern work.

But in our leap forward, we lost something. Paper was more than a tool—it was a blank canvas for creativity.

It was limitless.

It allowed us to freely organize our work, arranging text and shapes in unconstrained patterns to fit our needs. If you could think it, you could draw it. If you could draw it, you could use it.

With software, we gained efficiency but lost something vital in the transition: the creative freedom to work the way we want to.

When Software Holds Us Back

Software shapes the way we work. White-collar workers have been stripped of their creativity and reduced to performing repetitive tasks on one-size-fits-all platforms, leading to record levels of burnout and depression.

Software shapes the way companies operate. The market rewards software built for enterprise giants, leaving the unique and the bold to fend for themselves. The promise of early efficiency evaporates as rigid systems force smaller players into workarounds that deepen their dependence on the very tools holding them back.

Software shapes the way companies get built. Tools dictate process. Process dictates culture. Instead of blazing trails, we’re stuck following tracks already laid. What should set companies apart—their values, their vision, their ways of working—fades into sameness.

The Era of Personalized Software

There’s no reason why software should limit us while paper doesn’t. The way we dream, build and grow should shape our tools—not the other way around.

Fortunately, the glass ceiling created by software giants is starting to crack.

API-centric tools, designed to excel at one task and connect seamlessly with others, offer operators powerful building blocks. These tools can be assembled like Legos to create proprietary systems, leveraging state-of-the-art infrastructure without the complexity and at a fraction of the cost.

AI is breaking barriers too. Once locked away in the domain of developers, the power to design and customize tools is becoming accessible to anyone. The rise of LLMs is dissolving the technical walls that used to separate creators from their creations.

We are witnessing the Great Unbundling of Software. One-size-fits-all solutions are giving way to custom ones, as the tools for creating bespoke software become increasingly accessible, affordable and easy to stack.

Standardized software is coming to an end. In its place, a new paradigm is emerging: one where founders build truly unique and enduring companies, powered by custom internal tools designed by and for the people who use them.

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At Railblocks, we build internal tooling and systems (tools, workflows & data) designed for you and with you. We believe tools should fit people, not the other way around. Your work is unique. Your tooling should be too.