My favorite example of this is comparing facial hair scissors with a nose hair trimmer.

The scissors have a lot of advantages: they’re smaller, lighter, cheaper, less fragile and are more versatile. They’ll probably last past your lifetime, unlike motorized nose hair trimmers. They also tend to be more pleasant to use–they don’t tug on hairs as frequently and don’t tickle as much. You can trim your beard, eyebrows, and ear hair using scissors.

They’re quieter. They don’t require electricity, so you can take them camping or traveling anywhere in the world, without worrying about charging or plugs.

What are the advantages of motorized nose hair trimmers, then? They are easier to use and faster for their single specialized task. The ease of use can be the difference between trimming nose hairs and not if you lack the dexterity to operate scissors. But that’s it.

This example is illustrative, but the concept that simpler technology is usually better for an individual user extends to building software, choosing kitchen appliances, and writing.

If you’re building a static website, HTML and CSS are almost certainly the right tools. There’s a temptation to add something like Svelte or Vue for a little reactivity, but that’s what vanilla JavaScript is for–adding a little bit of behavior. 

If you’re just getting into cooking, a single, high quality, pan, spatula, cutting board, and knife, will do. The same logic applies to deciding how to stock your kitchen if instead you’re planning to cook mainly using a pot, baking, or even using a microwave as your primary heat source. If money is a concern, you can sometimes find this stuff at second hand stores.

For writing, pen and paper are best. They have analogous advantages to the facial hair scissors. They also allow you to focus, undistracted, on writing. You can probably type faster than you can with pen and paper, but quality writing doesn’t depend on speed. If you want bulk word salad fast, prompt a language model.

This concept has wide-reaching implications, and can save you a lot of time and frustration if you routinely apply it when making decisions.

Simplicity is best.