Community
Articles, videos, and discussions that shaped Use What Works.
Articles
Choose Boring Technology
Dan McKinley
The seminal talk on why you should pick proven, well-understood tools and spend your innovation tokens wisely.
Build or Adopt? Stop Building Your Own Plumbing
Shawn Wildermuth
Why building your own infrastructure is almost always the wrong call, and how to recognize when you're doing it.
Own What Makes You You
Ardalis
You should build and own the things that differentiate you, and buy or outsource the rest. Applying the Build vs. Buy question to your brand and business.
Don't Reinvent the Wheel, Unless You Plan on Learning More About Wheels
Jeff Atwood
Challenges the blanket advice and offers a nuanced take on where reinvention helps and where it hurts.
Seven Deadly Sins of Programming
Eric Gunnerson
Sin #1: building custom data access layers instead of using mature, well-supported tools.
Selecting Third-Party Libraries: The Practitioners' Perspective
Academic study
26 factors developers consider when choosing a library. A practical guide on when to build vs. buy.
Videos
Build v/s Buy
Todd Gardner
A clear-headed walkthrough of how to make the build-or-buy decision without letting ego drive it.
Choose Boring Technology (talk)
Dan McKinley
The conference talk version of the famous essay, with worked examples and audience Q&A.
Making Better Build vs Buy Decisions
Chris Bell
Practical decision framework presented at LeadDev New York 2024.
For every dev who thinks 'I could build this $30/month SaaS myself instead of paying for it' - the best thing you can do IS to build it! You learn 1. How much work it is (just for the base case) 2. Edge cases the SaaS silently takes care of 3. The cost (+pain!) of maintenance
Gergely Orosz