why all software eventually becomes a todo app with extra steps

All apps start with a noble purpose. A recipe app. A book tracker. A cloud platform for syncing your fridge with your emotional state. It begins as one clean idea: help the user do one specific thing slightly less annoyingly than before.

Then the user needs to save something. Saved things need names. Names need descriptions. Descriptions need statuses. Statuses need filters. Filters need sorting. Sorting needs preferences. Preferences need accounts. Accounts need notifications. Notifications need settings. Settings need a settings page for the settings.

This is the curse of software: everything eventually becomes “a list of things to manage.” Emails are todos with more anxiety. Calendars are todos with time attached. Project management tools are todos wearing enterprise perfume. Even health apps are just todos that judge you for not drinking water.

And every new feature feels reasonable. Nobody wakes up and says, “today I will reinvent Jira.” They say, “we should probably let users mark this as done.” Then “maybe add labels.” Then “what about related items?” And suddenly your innocent app has priorities, assignees, due dates, reminders, and a dashboard called “Overview.”

And suddenly, it’s Jira in a trench coat.