Choose Boring Technology

I'm surprised I haven't posted this before because the "choose boring tech" article by Dan McKinley made a big impression when I first read it, about 3 years ago.

  1. original article
  2. humorous slide show version

Key takeaways, based on my memory of reading it a couple years ago:

  • Boring tech is that which is mature enough and that you know well enough that you are familiar with its shortcomings, and that will let you build something quickly
  • You get 3 innovation tokens for each project or stack. Choosing some new and exciting bit of tech requires spending 1 of those tokens.
  • A nice alternative title for this is "How to be old, for young people", which is really incisive.
  • In addition to the advice in the article, I read somewhere else that the probability of something continuing to exist in future, and be actively maintained and supported, is approximately the amount of time that it has already existed, and been supported and maintained. I'm not even sure that makes sense, but it bears considering. Source?

This should be on my imaginary list of "things I should read every couple of years". Actually, a few lists might be really useful. A list of python articles, a list of advice articles, etc. It would be similar to the books page, which is just a list of book articles.