A Case for Boring Tools

The most reliable tools in my life are the ones that have stopped asking for my attention.

A pen. A paper notebook. A text editor with no plugins. A camera with one lens. A bicycle. None of these have changed materially in years. None of them want me to upgrade. None of them have a notification system.

The cost of clever

Clever tools have a way of becoming the thing you spend your time on, instead of the thing they were meant to help you do. The note-taking app that promised to organize your thinking has become, instead, a hobby in itself. The IDE has become more complicated than the code.

There is a kind of compounding fatigue in maintaining tools that maintain themselves badly.

What boring tools give you

• A stable surface. You stop relearning the interface.
• A clear horizon. The tool does not surprise you. You can plan around it.
• Lower stakes. Nothing is being optimized in the background without your knowledge.
• Time back. You spend it on the work, not the workflow.

The point of a tool is to disappear into the hand that holds it.

A short defense

I am not against new tools. I am against new tools that demand to be the protagonist. Most of the work I am proud of was made with software older than my career, on hardware I have not thought about in months.

If your tools are interesting to you, that is fine. Just make sure they are not more interesting than the work.