As developers, we’re constantly discovering new tools. 

One week it’s an API client. 
Next week it’s a testing utility. 
Then a UI generator you saw in a dev thread. 

The problem isn’t finding tools anymore. It’s remembering which ones actually mattered. 

I’ve noticed a pattern in my own workflow: 

• I bookmark something useful 

• I use it once or twice 

• then I forget it exists 

• a month later, I search for the same thing again

 

It’s a quiet kind of inefficiency, but it adds up. 

From collecting tools → keeping a stack

What started working better for me was treating tools less like “things I might need someday” and more like part of a personal stack. 

So instead of saving everything, I started: 

• keeping only tools I’ve actually used 

• organizing them around workflows (debugging, building, testing) 

• revisiting and cleaning that list regularly

 

It’s a small mindset shift, but it changes how you interact with the tools you discover. 

Making it easier to return

To support this, I’ve been exploring the idea of a personal web app library, something between bookmarks and a curated stack. 

I’ve been trying it out with unstore, and what I like is that it encourages you to keep and organize tools instead of endlessly collecting new ones. 

It’s not about adding more to your workflow. It’s about reducing friction when you come back to it. 

The takeaway

We don’t need more tools. 
We need better ways to remember the ones that already work.