My friend runs a marketing agency. He spends a thousand dollars a month on software. He has tools for social media, SEO, email, analytics, project management, and more. Every month he gets emails about "new technology updates" for these tools. He dutifully reads them, updates his workflows, and trains his team.
Last week he told me: "I think I'm spending more time managing the tools than doing the actual work."
That's the trap.
The Update Illusion
We fall for the promise that the next update will fix everything. A new feature. A new integration. A new UI. And we chase it, thinking we're being efficient.
But efficiency is not about having the newest tools. It's about having the right tools and using them consistently.
When I look at "new technology updates," I've started asking a different question: does this update solve a problem I actually have? Or is it just something the company added to justify their next price increase?
Usually, it's the latter.
Stability Is Underrated
I think of Google Docs. It's been largely the same for over a decade. But it's still the best collaborative writing tool. Why? Because it's reliable. It does what it's supposed to do. It doesn't force me to relearn things every month.
That's the opposite of the SaaS trend. Many software companies update constantly to show their investors that they're "innovating." But often, the updates make the product worse.
The Audit
My friend with the marketing agency — I told him to do an audit. He spent a day listing all the tools he uses, the cost, and how often he actually uses each feature. He realized he was paying for a dozen features he never touched. He downgraded to cheaper plans. He canceled three tools entirely.
His team is happier. They spend less time on tool management. And they're getting more done.
That's the real update. Not the software's update. His own.