The right tool for the job

Hammers are cool, but...

“Use the right tool for the job” is grossly misunderstood advice.

People routinely die on the hill of the “technically superior” tool and ignore the real world around the businesses adopting technology

Truth is, the right tool looks drastically different for your mom & pop smb, a bootstrapped startup, a well-funded company, and the incumbent Goliath.

It’s also different depending on geo, target audience, founder’s accumulated experience, and team proficiency.

In practice, the right tool is supposed to be a windowing function.

It’ll evolve with you (and you with it) as what you’re using unlocks achievements and creates new challenges, and as you mature along the way.

The tools that have served me the longest have been serenity - accept/change/distinguish - and resilience.

This has been the case in my personal life, engineering, business, mental health.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish starting from -1 just with these two things.

On top of those, the next best thing for me is a strong understanding of causality, and the mental framework of the scientific method.

Oh boy! problems essentially solve themselves.

That is, if they are solvable in the first place.

Guardrails and systems seem to scale better in my experience than discipline. although that may have a lot to do with having a neurodivergent brain.

In any case: seek understanding over oversimplification. You will most likely be better off for it.