“Choose boring technology.” — Dan McKinley (ex-Engineering at Etsy)
In the age of constant innovation and shiny new frameworks, it’s tempting to jump on every new tool that promises to change your dev life. But sometimes, the best tool is the one you don’t notice—because it just works.
Welcome to the case for boring tech.
🧠 What is Boring Tech?
Boring tech isn't bad tech. It's well-established, stable, and widely understood. It’s PostgreSQL over some NoSQL flavor-of-the-month. It’s Rails or Django over the latest JS meta-framework. It’s SSH and cron instead of a complex CI/CD toolchain you don’t understand.
🧰 Why Choose Boring?
1. 🧪 It's Battle-Tested
Boring tech has survived years of production use. It has documentation, Stack Overflow threads, GitHub issues, and real-world success stories.
2. 🤝 Hiring is Easier
Good luck finding a dev fluent in a 3-month-old build tool. With boring tech, there’s a bigger talent pool and faster onboarding.
3. 🐞 Fewer Surprises
Shiny tools break. APIs change. Dependencies rot. Boring tech? It’s predictable—and predictability is a superpower in production.
🏗 Examples of Beautifully Boring Tech
- 🐘 PostgreSQL
- 🧱 jQuery (yes, still!)
- 📦 Docker
- 🐍 Python
- 🛠 Bash scripts
- 🔧 cron jobs
- 🧑💻 Git
None of these make headlines—but they keep the digital world running.
🚀 When to Avoid Boring
Of course, boring tech isn’t always the answer. Use cutting-edge tools when:
- Your problem is novel or evolving fast
- You're prototyping and optimizing later
- You want to experiment (and accept the risks)
But in production? Simplicity scales.
💬 Final Thoughts
Tech isn’t about what’s coolest—it’s about what delivers reliably.
If you want to ship, sleep, and scale, maybe it’s time to go back to basics.
🖋 Written by Juan G., builder of useful things and fan of predictable systems.
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