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At the top is a "tl;dr" which makes some points that I think are good to keep in mind for any set of tools: Pick from N different tools that do N different

At the top is a "tl;dr" which makes some points that I think are good to keep in mind for any set of tools: Pick from N different tools that do N different things is a good model. Pick from N ~equivalent choices is a really bad user experience. Picking a default doesn’t make other approaches illegal.

zdragnar 4y ago
As someone who has had to take over the projects of other people, I will say the third point needs a caveat: Picking a non-default tool needs a written explanation with sound reasoning When there is a default, new members to the community will gravitate towards it and, if there isn't a good reason, will avoid learning other options. In time, this ends up being anywhere from a minor annoyance to very frustrating, as not only are you losing time to learning, but potentially losing time to not having access to extras as the community around the default expands and your now special snowflake project goes without. For very specific tools and libraries, it might be okay if they are easily interchangeable (but is apparently bad UX?) But for things with larger responsibilities - a full blown ORM, package manager, etc- it can end up being a millstone.