I think you’re on to something there. Most software available today merely does what free software already does, but with specific marketing to make it seem like something people need. For example, all of the below software categories are easily handled with either the software bundled with your operating system or a simple open source download:
- budgeting
- to do / productivity
- book / music / video game / etc. media cataloging
- project planning
- event planning
- file storage
- etc
When someone remarked once that most SaaS products are a front end to a spreadsheet, I just thought, “they’re not wrong.”
Now if people had computer literacy they wouldn’t pay $20 a month for a service their computer already does.
I think what’s truly missing is that all those apps don’t make sharing easy, and operating systems all suck at sharing, or when they’re ok at it (airdrop), it’s limited to nearby people, or not across OSes, etc.
Almost all SaaS are about easy cross-device, cross-internet, sharing, which all traditional apps don’t even try to be good at.
What is nominally a group of individuals working collectively to solve a problem became attributed to a single person purely for marketing purposes. It is easier for most people to remember one name, or attribute an effect to a singular cause (by extension causer).
What we remember through the mists of time is not the best, but what garnered the most attention in that era. Those two are not the same, never have been. What you call genius mow was back then an influencer.
Now modern technology has made it possible for anyone to become an influencer. And so, geniuses are everywhere and nowhere, all at once. The influencers that survive into the next era (I’m looking at Elon) will be the geniuses of our time.