Choosing boring technology on purpose
The most innovative thing you can do is often to pick the dull, proven tool. A look at how we decide when to reach for something new.
Every technology you adopt comes with a cost that's easy to ignore at selection time: the cost of operating it at 3am when it breaks. Novelty multiplies that cost.
We keep a small budget for new technology on any given project. Spend it where it creates real advantage, and pay for everything else with proven, boring tools that the whole team already understands.
This isn't conservatism for its own sake. It's a recognition that most of a system's lifetime is spent being maintained, not built. The exciting choice at kickoff is often the regrettable one at the two-year mark.
PostgreSQL, a well-understood language, a plain deployment: these are the foundations that let you be genuinely adventurous where it counts, without betting the whole system on it.