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Tools That Disappear

January 20, 2025 · Note

The best developer tools disappear. You don’t think about them — you just work.

I switched to Warp recently and barely noticed after the first week. That’s the highest praise I can give a terminal. It got out of the way.

The moment you’re fighting your tools instead of your problem, something has gone wrong. I’ve seen teams spend more time configuring their build system than building features. More time debating linters than writing code.

Simple tools, mastered deeply, beat complex tools used poorly.