Thoughts on the over-engineering of everyday tools and apps
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I read the post The world smallest office suite by Serge Zaitsev. It made me think about my workflows and the tools I use every day.
I don't know about you, but I struggle to settle on tools and apps. I'm continually looking for apps to integrate the new and shiny into my daily life. I frequently switch apps for everyday tasks, and I don't even have to mention that the tooling landscape in web development changes every day.
My mind won't stop. It always wants to try new things. Suppose I feel unproductive, I give yet another todo list app a try. I used dozens of markdown editors to write this blog. I frequently try out new JavaScript frameworks. And the list goes on and on and on...
How does this topic relate to the article about office tools? The article explains how you can build office software for text processing, slide creation, and math calculations right in your browser URL bar.
To see what I'm talking about, paste the following in your browser URL bar.
data:text/html,<body contenteditable style="line-height:1.5;font-size:20px;">
Tada! You now have a tiny note pad. If you want to write down something quickly, it will do the job fine! And the best part about it; it's easy to use, quick, and there is no need to install anything. Very often, simple tools get the job done as well as over engineered-products.
A todo list is a list of checkboxes. If I don't get things done, it's rarely the todo list's fault.
A markdown editor processes words, but it doesn't do the writing; I have to put the words into it.
Are most of the apps we use over-engineered solutions to problems we don't have? Are all these products holding us back from getting the job done?
These are big questions, and I can't answer them. 🙈 But I know that my success and productivity rarely depend on the apps I use but always on me.
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Frontend nerd with over ten years of experience, freelance dev, "Today I Learned" blogger, conference speaker, and Open Source maintainer.