His bottom up design sounds like the libraries and frameworks of today. Need to sort a list? There's a sorting function in this library. Need to host a website

His bottom up design sounds like the libraries and frameworks of today. Need to sort a list? There's a sorting function in this library. Need to host a website? There's a framework over there for that. The main takeaway seems to be the need to create utility level libraries for your own work that is specialized to your needs.