“New and Shiny” is not a strategy

Beware of new and shiny

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Oh, you want more than that?

Alright. “New and shiny” isn’t a benefit. It doesn’t help your customer. It doesn’t improve your bottom line. And it sure doesn’t make your project easier to maintain in six months.

New and shiny has to earn its place.

Too often, “new and shiny” really just means different. It’s novelty for novelty’s sake — and that novelty doesn’t magically translate into value.

We’ve seen this cycle play out repeatedly. Some ecosystems seem to burn everything down every couple of years just to rebuild it, only slightly different. That’s not progress — that’s churn.

Compare that to Rails, where the core concepts haven’t fundamentally changed in a decade. Instead of reinventing the wheel every two years, Rails has had ten years of focused, compounding improvements. That kind of stability gives you leverage.

So if you’re tempted to chase the latest thing, ask yourself:

What can I only do because of this change?

If you don’t have a solid answer, maybe you don’t need the change.