---
title: Choose Boring Technology
url: 'https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology'
author: Dan McKinley
original_published: '2015'
noted_on: '2026-05-24'
tags:
  - engineering
  - decision-making
---

I wrote [a reaction essay](/writing/boring) about this in 2018 and the position
has aged well. The hardest version of "choose boring" is when *you* are the
boring choice — when the right move is to keep using what your team already
knows instead of what's interesting to you personally. The friction this
generates inside engineering orgs is real, and it doesn't get easier with
seniority. McKinley's "innovation tokens" framing is the part I still find
myself reaching for years later.