Our Tools Have Never Been Better

I was reminded of this via a quote by famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams: "The best camera is the one you have with you."

True. Whatever tool you have, that's the best one right now. But it also made me realize that, as technology progresses, we mere mortals get access to tools that the masters of the past could only have dreamed of. It's fun to image what more Isaac Newton could have accomplished with access to a modern calculator, or Ansel Adams with the latest digital camera (plus, of course, Photoshop...).

And what do we do with this gift? Complain (like I did about AI yesterday) that these tools, which appear like magic to our predecessors, are lacking in one way or another. This is okay if we use that as feedback to improve our tools, but it's damaging if we use it as an excuse to not start, or to not do our best with what we have: Could I take better pictures with a better camera? Probably, but only marginally so, since my own skill is the true limiting factor.

Could a non-technical person make an even better app with a better coding agent? Maybe, but the one who just gets going with what's already out there will get much further, much faster. So stop harping about the tools and don't wait for a mythical "perfect" one and just get going.