Every AI app I've shipped recently rewrote the same plumbing. The OAuth dance for Slack. Encrypted storage for an API key. Refresh-token logic that finally fails on the 3rd call after an hour. Wiring up an MCP client to a server behind a bearer token someone pasted into a Notion page.
This is part three of a series on display consistency in embedded systems. The first two parts were technical. This one is about why the technical parts worked. The picture: ATtiny85 thermometer. Neural network inference. QUAD7SHIFT display. Built from datasheets. He had datasheets. No Stack Overflow. No libraries to install. No AI to generate boilerplate. No tutorials that abstracted away the in