alt Hacker NewsThe boring technology framing is meant to provide a hook to help people "have rational discussions about technical choices". It's a tool for inspiring conversation.
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zero_shift • yesterday at 3:36 PM
I disagree with you, Simon. I almost always see "Use Boring Technology" to close down conversations, not open them up.
I don't get it. The inspiration is your product requirements, why would I need to say "it's boring" to get things started?
I feel like I've been pretty clear.
1. "Boring" is a bad term that obfuscates things that do not merit obfuscation. It's like saying "brb" in person instead of "I'll be back in 5 minutes" - "brb" means nothing to me, 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 30? And it saved you like 2 words? Silly, unserious, and fine for casual conversations but not for technical decisions like "what database do we use?".
2. It lets people lean into a bias. I see massive bias away from "hyped" tech. People on HN constantly condemn projects for being "hype" tech with no merit behind their criticism, or at least no expressed merit. It sounds very smart to say "oh that's just hyped" - this is a known bias that extends outside of tech. Calling something "boring" makes you sound smart but it doesn't convey information and it leads to the exact same decisions that "hype" would.
Having a conversation about technology is not hard. It's the job. It's one of the most important parts of the job. It is not worth papering over with some biased wording that is guilty of the same exact failure modes of the approach it attempts to deride.