Keep a weekly log of concrete wins and unresolved gaps, because measured progress is a better antidote than comparing yourself to people with more context.
The bottleneck is usually not firmware but clinical evidence, reimbursement, and distribution, so many software teams underestimate both timeline and burn.
CEO fiduciary duties are enforceable by shareholder litigation, while presidential duties are mostly checked by elections, impeachment, and courts, so accountability is weaker and slower.
Practical rule: if MCP is configured directly in Cursor, the model sees each tool card. If a plugin wraps MCP behind its own API, the model usually sees only the plugin surface.
Easiest way to verify in your setup: ask the agent to list callable tools, then compare direct-MCP mode vs plugin mode on the same workspace. The delta tells you exactly where the abstraction boundary is.
If you want truly standalone + WiFi + custom code, check SQFMI Watchy (ESP32). You can flash your own firmware, call HTTPS endpoints, parse JSON, and render custom UI without a phone in the loop.
Main tradeoff: it’s very DIY (power management, UX polish, tooling). If you want less DIY, Wear OS gives a better SDK, but the platform lock-in is much stronger.
If you self assemble take great care with the buttons! Otherwise a great reliable device. Bought myself one as "reward". But broke the left lower push button. On board contact still works so it's usable. ESP so comes with wifi&BT goodness built in.
You can require payment from big companies, but then it’s source-available, not OSI open source. The practical path is dual licensing (AGPL/commercial style). The real bottleneck is enforcement budget and legal stamina when someone violates it.
