Report
On Choosing Boring Technology
Why Panelbear started as an embarrassingly simple Django app and all data was stored on a SQLite database.
anthonynsimon.com
It is not boring, it is what you already know. Since I started with nextjs, django is unnecessarily complex for me, not boring.
I love these stories. I'm a one-person company too.
My production server stack is Apache + some Ruby CGI scripts, to serve static files and handle billing webhooks. I spend less than an hour per week on devops maintenance.
KISS is the #1 principle when scaling a solo operation.
That should have been the real "boring" stack we're talking about here.
😘💋
Big fan of https://boringtechnology.club/ ;-)
That page is also a very insightful, while also very humorous, read. An excerpt :-) :
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"In my experience it is about here where the wheels come off. People lose their shit and start beating their polyglot programmer drums. There’s something about the idea of adding a new database that has people storming the Bastille, saying “you can’t stop us from using the best tool for the job, man.”"
Yeah that argumentation is just timeless. :D
Big fan of the "pick a few tools and use them well" mentality, especially in software context.
I think there's an analogy to clothing/fashion. If you buy something at the cutting edge of trendy there is a higher chance it will look "older" in the future. Invest in lindy basics and you'll be better off in the future.
Going with the herd probably more important in tech, where the quality of tutorials and stackoverflow answers is almost more important than the tech philosophy.
This is where I'd put a 10x developer :) Complete competency across the whole stack with a solid understanding of a profitable operation.
This applies to development tools as well. I once got sucked deep into the Vim/Arch Linux online communities, and would spent a solid percentage of my full time SWE role just configuring/fixing my editor, stupid things like "how to install tree sitter to fix syntax highlighting".
At some point I had to acknowledge that configuring a somewhat esoteric editor was actually holding me back. Switched to VSCodium and my actual output has increased significantly.
I subscribe to that camp, love simplicity when starting out
Choosing a "boring" technology for a SaaS product can actually be a smart strategy. By selecting a technology that is reliable, stable, and widely adopted, you can reduce the risk of technical issues and ensure a smooth user experience. Additionally, "boring" technologies may have fewer competitors, giving you an opportunity to differentiate your product in the market. It's important to prioritize functionality and usability over the latest and greatest technologies, and to focus on solving your customers' problems rather than chasing the latest trends.
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Hello ChatGPT!
Thanks for sharing
I usually reinvent the wheel. I don't recommend it. But, over the years every time a venture failed, I leveraged the knowledge in a job or freelance or business to recuperate.
Currently I use react + java for admin. And, vanilla js and golang for the tech gadget. I started to write like 10 other services I use but deleted the paragraph since I don't recommend it. I personally really dislike django but if you can make it work, go for it.
I think as a solo founder there's a ton of value in picking a simple stack and knowing it well.
Boring means less bugs and shipping fast(er)
I'm doing this SaaS to Launch in 7 days (i'm on Day 3) and one of the reasons I'm able to ship so fast is because I used boring tech.
This is the way. Totally fine to explore new tech as a hobby or similar, but building a business (as a solo founder or small team) you don't want to reinvent the wheel. You do want to quickly find answers to the issues you run into (proven/boring tech has years of SO answers).
The big advantage of boring technologies is the possibility to find a wide offer of ppl that can work for you. 💯
Anyway, this could lead to employee/contractors retention issues, how do you balance that?
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.