I can really commiserate with how you are feeling. Something I’ve done recently is set up a “homelab” server and running a few web apps on it of various functions. Nothing novel here, but what I really love about this is how all of these apps are user centric and open source/community built. There’s no user hostile algorithms here or even ad based systems. Only software that tends to put the user first and tends to speak open protocols.

This sort of thing is very achievable if you work in IT and can run your own server. But what about everyone else?

Your idea of a personal “IT person”, like your own personal barber or tailor, is very intriguing. I wonder if its feasible to provide a service like this to people who are of a similar mindset about disconnecting from huge tech companies/algorithms and using something more personal, but don’t have the technical means to achieve this?

I’ve also been thinking about the personal data aspect of healthcare. I hate that my medical records are stored in MyChart and a dozen other proprietary systems that I have no control over. Yet, I have a super computer in my pocket. Why can’t I maintain my own copy of my records and selectively share data with my doctors when I arrive for an appointment? Why do I still need to have one doctor’s office fax something to another’s? I should be able to own my data and tap a button on my phone to do this. Only Apple’s Health app seems to come anywhere close to providing a fraction of this functionality, but there seems to be 0 adoption of this within the US. Even then, this only benefits Apple users. Something like health data should not be locked in a propriety system, even one that runs locally like Apple Health. There should be some open protocol and an ecosystem of implementations.