I almost lost 3 months of client data last week — all because I wanted to "upgrade" my tools
I was about to jump ship from Feishu to some "more advanced" CRM tool, then noticed the new tool's import logic didn't line up with my old Excel sheet. Three months of follow-up records were about to go haywire. I froze — was I wrong to pick the original tool, or was I just chasing the new thing?
"Choose boring technology" — an Etsy engineer said this back in 2015
Dan McKinley, while working at Etsy (US handmade e-commerce platform), wrote a piece called Choose Boring Technology. His core argument: your business already comes with weird, unique problems — don't let your tools pile on more chaos.
His example: Etsy stuck with MySQL (a 1995 database) instead of the hot new thing at the time. Result — engineers were easy to hire, docs were everywhere, problems had answers one Google search away. Twenty years later the company is still standing, worth billions.
Same logic plays out for one-person businesses. A friend of mine, Xiaolin (based in Guangzhou, started her side gig in 2022), runs Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) marketing operations. She hasn't switched her bookkeeping tool in three years — just Excel plus a WeChat group for client comms. She says: "Every minute I'm thinking about what the client wants. No bandwidth to learn new software." She's now pulling in a steady 30k RMB per month.
The "boring choice" checklist you can run today
Money: ¥0 — keep using the oldest tool you already have
Time: 30 minutes
Tech barrier: enough to write the sentence "I started using this App in [year]"
First step: open your phone's Settings → Screen Time, find the App you use every single day and have used for over a year — that's your "boring tool." Keep using it. Don't touch it.
Honestly, if your current tool isn't keeping you up at night, don't switch. The shiny-tool habit burns way more time than you'd think. I used to install whatever YouTube pushed at me each week. Six months later, the only ones I was actually using were the same 3 old friends.
Stage-based advice (if you're X, I'd Y)
If you're just starting out (monthly income under 5k): I'd stick with 1-2 ordinary tools — WeChat plus one Excel sheet is plenty. Don't get seduced by "AI magic." You haven't even mapped the real customer needs yet.
If you have 1-2 stable clients already: I'd build a spreadsheet logging "when each tool was added, what specific problem it solved." Review it in 3 months, then cut the ones you barely touch.
If you're scaling up (3+ person team): before switching tools I'd ask myself — "What's one specific, unsaid pain it solves today?" If I can't articulate it, don't switch. Not every tool is for everyone. Skipping it now is fine.