Choice Paralysis in IT – Reflections from a Developer with Two Decades of Experience

I still remember the early days of my career. It was around 2005. I had an old laptop, Notepad, a local XAMPP server, and a world where PHP, MySQL, and a bit of jQuery were enough to build real things. Simpler times. There wasn’t much to “choose” – you just started building.

Looking back, I now realize that having fewer options was actually a blessing. Today, as a Full Stack Developer with almost 20 years in the industry – and someone who grew up in the PHP era but transitioned into the JavaScript-heavy world we live in now – I often find myself stuck. Not because I don’t know what to do, but because I know too much. That’s what we call choice paralysis.

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When “too many good options” becomes the problem

Let me give you a concrete example. I want to build a backend for a side project. Instantly, my brain starts juggling:
Laravel? Symfony? Node.js with Nest? Maybe go minimal with Fastify or Express? What about Supabase or a headless CMS?

Then comes the frontend:
React? Vue? Svelte? SolidJS? Or just stick with classic server-side rendering? Tailwind or plain CSS modules?

Add TypeScript into the mix and the questions grow even deeper: Should I go full strict mode? Should I use Zod or Joi for validation? Zustand or Redux? React Query or SWR?

And while I know that none of these options are bad, it’s exactly that thought – “none of them are bad” – that sends me into a spiral. I read docs, skim Reddit threads, compare benchmarks… and suddenly it’s 4 PM and I’ve written zero lines of code.

The paradox of being experienced

One of the strange things about being in this industry for a long time is that decisions become heavier.
Why? Because now I carry:

memories of past mistakes,
an awareness of long-term maintenance costs,
the pressure to “choose right” for the team or the client,
and a voice in my head whispering, “Are you sure this is the best option?”

And meanwhile, the younger devs in the team? They just pick something and run with it. No second-guessing, no agonizing. Sometimes I envy that.

JavaScript in particular is a great example of this. It’s powerful and endlessly flexible, but also… fragmented. Every year there’s a new build tool, a new state manager, a new meta-framework. Vite replaces Webpack. Then Bun shows up. Next.js evolves into something entirely different. Keeping up is exhausting, and deciding what not to care about becomes a skill in itself.

What I’ve learned about dealing with it

Over time, I’ve developed a few personal strategies to escape the analysis black hole:

✅ 1. Define your criteria before exploring

Before opening 10 tabs and diving into comparison mode, I try to define what matters most for this project. Speed of development? Community support? Developer familiarity? Knowing what I actually care about filters out a lot of noise.

✅ 2. Timebox your research

I literally give myself a deadline. “One hour to explore options. Then I pick and move on.” Otherwise, I’ll fall into a rabbit hole. And trust me, I’ve been there too many times.

✅ 3. Accept that no option is perfect

I’ve stopped chasing the perfect stack. It doesn’t exist. There will always be trade-offs – and that’s okay. I’ve learned to commit and adapt instead of endlessly chasing the ideal.

✅ 4. Remember: done > perfect

In the end, the app that gets launched using an “okay” stack is always better than the one stuck in planning hell while I evaluate another new JS framework.

Final thoughts

The irony is, when I knew less, I built more. Now that I know more, I often have to force myself to act despite uncertainty. That’s the reality of experience in tech – knowledge gives you depth, but it also brings hesitation.

JavaScript, for all its power, is also a landmine of options. But the beauty is: you can’t go too far wrong if you commit and iterate.
So if you’re stuck choosing your next stack, tool, framework, or even CSS library:
Pick one. Move forward. Adjust later.

Perfection is a mirage. Progress is real.