The Strategic Case for “Use What Works”: Why Smart Tech Leaders Stop Reinventing the Wheel

This article argues that tech leaders often waste resources by building custom solutions for common problems like authentication, deployment, or logging, which are not competitive differentiators. It promotes the 'Use What Works' philosophy, highlighting five key reasons: focusing engineers on product value, planning for employee turnover, leveraging battle-tested software, reducing risk with predictable tools, and avoiding hidden maintenance costs. The piece emphasizes that established technologies offer community support, documentation, and reliability, making them smarter choices for sustainable business growth in the tech industry.