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Too many tools or tool overload

· 6 min read

Today, every field is filled with countless tools, especially software. In our daily life and work, we use far too many of them.

We intend to use these tools to improve efficiency and productivity. However, too many tools can become a burden, ultimately reducing efficiency and productivity.

Having too many tools means spending a lot of time and energy to select, understand, learn, use, and master the necessary tools. Choosing too many tools wastes time, energy, and resources, hindering the goals achieved through those tools. This can also lead to the same cognitive burden, distraction, and obstacles to solving practical problems that occur in situations of information overload.

I have over 20 years of experience in software development, during which time I've learned many programming languages, tools, operating systems, editors, project management tools, and more, including C/C++, Java, TCL, Perl, Python, PHP, JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML, CSS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Vim, Emacs, VS Code, Redmine, Trac, etc.

Now I no longer use many of these tools, and only use a few that I find useful, such as Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Linux, Vim, HTML, CSS, and Metaessen (my own product for managing various resources).

Looking back, I explored and used so many tools in the past, but only a few of them turned out to be truly useful and remained in use. In the end, just a handful stayed. A huge amount of time, energy, and resources was wasted.

Life is short. There's really no need to learn and use so much knowledge, information, and tools. Too much knowledge, information, and tools can become obstacles and shackles, wasting your opportunities, time, energy, and resources. It restricts your freedom of thought, narrows your scope of activities, and makes your life a meaningless waste of your prime years. It prevents your mind and actions from deeply understanding and experiencing yourself, society, and the world.

Reading too many books can actually harm you. Don't read so much. Find your direction, practice more, experience more, enjoy more, and think more.

Sometimes, it’s enough to just have a basic understanding. There's no need to spend so much time trying it out or using it. When we're young, we're naturally curious and want to try everything, which might be good, but indiscriminately trying everything we encounter is a waste of time and energy.

We should focus your time and energy on what are the most important, what truly deserve our attention, and what will be most helpful to us, instead of letting curiosity and interest run wild, causing unnecessary waste of resources and a dispersion of energy, we should concentrate on what truly counts. This will also result in a lack of depth and proficiency in your professional field, preventing you from reaching your full potential.

Let's look at the phenomena or harms caused by having too many tools:

  • Choice difficulties

  • Cognitive burden (Cognitive load)

    Every tool requires analysis and understanding of its pros and cons. The more tools you have, the heavier the mental load becomes.

  • Wasting time, energy, and resources

  • Reduced efficiency and productivity

  • Fewer opportunities and resources for more important work

  • Developing bad habits and mindsets

    For example, avoiding difficulties, especially the pressure and challenges of achieving goals. People may unconsciously use tool-choosing and tool-learning as a way to “prepare,” while actually avoiding the real task.

  • Insufficient depth and expertise in one's professional field

  • Insufficient depth and expertise in key tools leads to poor efficiency and productivity

  • Distracted focus

    Focusing on the tools themselves rather than the purpose of using them

  • Increased management overhead

How should we deal with the problem of having too many tools?

We need to remember that the purpose of using tools is to solve specific problems and achieve goals. Having no tools, too few tools, or too many tools can all hinder the achievement of those goals. We only need to select a few useful, universal, and widely applicable tools. Unless there are necessary and sufficient reasons, we shouldn't easily switch to new tools.

No tool is perfect. When using the useful functions of a tool, we also need to tolerate or ignore some of its shortcomings. Don't seek out or switch to a new tool simply because of some insignificant flaws. In the process of selecting and using tools, don't have the perfectionism, and always keep the goal in mind. The important thing is to master the useful functions of the tools to quickly, effectively, and efficiently complete tasks or goals, thereby significantly improving efficiency and productivity, rather than constantly complaining, switching tools, and wasting time and energy.

For some tools, we may also need to customize features and user interfaces, develop plugins, or even create entirely new functions or new tools.

When choosing a tool, don’t focus merely on how many people use it, how many positive reviews it has, what others say about it, how long it has existed, whether it is new or old, etc. Most subjective factors (such as reviews) are misleading and not objective, especially for commercial products. What truly matters is whether the tool can actually solve your real problems. The key is solving practical problems, not reviews, an attractive user interface, or other things.

Some tasks or goals can only be accomplished by combining multiple tools. Ideally, a single tool should not bundle too many features. It’s better to have a “core features + customization (or extensions/plugins)” model. Integrating too many functions makes the tool bloated, cumbersome, slow, inefficient, distracting, and leaves little time or focus for polishing the essential functions. As a result, the overall usefulness and performance of the tool decline. Therefore, we need to master and become proficient in several basic tools required for our profession or goals.

In the process of selecting and using tools, avoid flashy but impractical features, such as syntax highlighting or excessive syntax highlighting, overly fancy user interfaces, excessive use of colors, and too many user interface elements.

For the tools we choose,, one must become truly familiar with and proficient in their use, continuously customize, modify, and improve them, and strive to use them to the fullest extent, thereby significantly improving efficiency and productivity, and solving practical problems and achieving goals faster and better.