I’m blowing the dust off of an old project idea, and I’m finding the many development options avaialable pretty overwhelming. I’m so used to writing code in a preexisting codebase that having the option to choose anything I want and the options themselves feel like a lot for me to sift thorough right now. It’s like trying to pick a brand of toothpaste at the grocery store.

The last couple freelancing jobs (my first couple, actually) had enough initial parameters where I felt comfortable diving in with my current knowledgebase; I didn’t feel the need to seek out new frameworks or tooling. This new project gives me free reign - which is of course both exciting and intimdating.

But anyway, let’s see this as an opportunity, not a problem.

I’ve decided to pick up NextJS for a few reasons:

  1. I want full-stack capabilities for this project
  2. It keeps me comfortably within my React wheelhouse
  3. A former coworker of mine used to sing its praises
  4. create react app is deprecated now soooo? 😂

Having an idea for a project and then having to patiently wait to start it while I educate myself is a bit of a bummer, but there’s not a better option for me at the moment. This feeling is a little bit exacerbated by the fact that I also picked up HugoJS for this website a few days ago too, so I’ll keep that in mind as I find myself inundated with new material.

Updates to follow!

I couldn’t find a gif of Ted Lasso’s “cut yourself some slack” scissors bit, so I’ll just imagine its here.