There is a persistent temptation to reach for the newest framework, the most configurable pipeline, the most general abstraction. It feels productive in the moment. Six months later you are maintaining a system whose complexity is now the actual product.

Small tools win because they have shallow failure modes. When something breaks, you can see why. When you need to change something, you change one place. When someone new joins, the surface area is small enough to explain over coffee.

This is not an argument against ambition. It is an argument about sequencing. Start boring. Prove the thing matters. Add complexity only where the pain is actually located, not where a vendor says it might be.