Strip away the branding, the frameworks, the buzzwords. Every piece of software ever built does some combination of eight things:
1. Capture
Get data in. A form, a file upload, an API call, a forwarded email, a web scrape, a camera, a microphone. The first job of any system is accepting input from the outside world.
2. Store
Keep it somewhere. A database row, a file on S3, a JSON blob, a cache entry. Data that isn't stored doesn't exist. The storage layer determines what's possible later.
3. Link
Connect related things. A task has file attachments. A contact belongs to a project. An event references a location. The connections between data are often more valuable than the data itself.
4. Transform
Turn it into something else. Text becomes an image. Audio becomes a transcript. A prompt becomes a blog post. A spreadsheet becomes a chart. Transformation is where AI lives — it's the most powerful primitive we've ever had access to.
5. Filter
Find what you need. Search, sort, tag, categorize, filter by date or project or type. Without filtering, a system with a million records is worse than one with ten. The ability to surface the right thing at the right time is everything.
6. Display
Show it the right way. The same data looks different as a table, a kanban board, a calendar, a card grid, a chart, or a timeline. The display doesn't change the data — it changes whether a human can understand it.
7. Act
Do something with it. Execute a template, send an email, trigger a workflow, generate a file, make an API call, start a build. This is where data stops being passive and starts producing outcomes.
8. Share
Let others see or use it. A public profile, an embedded widget, an API endpoint, an MCP tool, a PDF export, a shared link. Data locked in a silo is half as valuable as data that can move.
That's It
Every feature request, every product roadmap, every startup pitch — it's some combination of these eight. A CRM is Capture + Store + Link + Filter + Display. A social network is Capture + Link + Display + Share. An AI tool is Capture + Transform + Display.
When you've built all eight primitives, you don't build new capabilities. You build new combinations. A new data type flows through the same capture, storage, linking, transformation, filtering, display, action, and sharing layers that already exist.
That's why mature platforms accelerate instead of slowing down. The primitives are done. Everything from here is just another variation on the same eight operations.
The architecture is the product.