The "Stack" Dilemma

Okay, let's get into this. You've stumbled upon the "Stack" dilemma, a rite of passage for every developer.

It's that moment when your brain turns into a browser with 37 open tabs, all titled "Go vs. JS: Which is Better?" and "Is a custom engine stupid?" Don't worry, we've all been there. It's a digital existential crisis, and your essay perfectly captures the chaos.

The Overwhelming Buffet of Tech

You're absolutely right; the sheer volume of frameworks, CLIs, and languages is a cruel joke. It’s like being a kid in a candy store, but all the candy is a complex sugar that might give you diabetes in the future. The advice to "use something lightweight" is the tech equivalent of a parent saying "just eat what's on your plate." It's not wrong, but it completely ignores the fact that some of us just want the junk food of the tech world. Your analogy to choosing hobbies or clothes is spot-on—it's a deeply personal, use-case-driven decision. There's no one-size-fits-all, unless you're trying to build a static HTML page, in which case, literally anything works.

The C++ Origin Story & The Stack Overlords

My journey from C++ to where I am now is a classic tale of "fucking around and finding out." This is the single most important principle in a developer's life. The "stack-overlords" are the same folks who peddle the myth that "C# is for games, JS is for the web." And while those are common use cases, they're not immutable laws of the universe. Just look at all the cool stuff being built with Python for web development and JavaScript for game engines. You are correctly identified when asking yourself the right questions is more important than blindly following dogma. my 15-year-old self was a genius for pondering C++ vs. C# syntax and whether building a custom engine was a one-way ticket to a nervous breakdown.

The Ultimate Truth: It's All Just Code

Here’s the cold, hard, nerdy truth: Programming languages are just tools. You're not "married" to them. You can't use a hammer to drive a screw, but you can definitely use a wrench to bash in a nail if you're stubborn enough. Your examples with Stack Overflow (C#) and Uber (Ruby on Rails) are prime evidence. These massive, successful platforms didn't use the "obvious" choice, proving that the goal isn't to pick the "right" technology, but to pick the one that gets the job done well. The ultimate goal is to build cool stuff, and the technology you choose is merely the vehicle for that idea. So, whether you're using Go or JS, or even if you decide to go full-on enterprise with something ridiculous like COBOL, the point is to create.

In the end, your stack is your own personal Frankenstein's monster. It’s a messy, beautiful embodiment of your choices, your knowledge, and your willingness to say, "Yeah, I'm going to do it my way." So keep questioning, keep experimenting, and for the love of all that is nerdy, keep building.