Issue 56 - The Less Options You Have, The Better Off You Will Be
Riverpod Best Practices. Who is Hiring. Willingness to Look Stupid. Technical Presentation Tips. Taste for Maker. Stand Out in 2026. Documentary IntelliJ IDEA. US Job Market Visualizer & Much More.
Humans want to have total control over things. Hence, we seek more predictable outcomes. And since the world is unpredictable, having more options feels like the logical way to be predictable and safe.
But this is exactly the problem of today’s generation. They can be a YouTuber, an Instagram influencer, a software engineer, a designer. They can be anything they want. They have 10 to 15 career options in front of them and they are more confused about which one to pick.
Another problem with having more options is that it also stops you from focusing on one thing for a long period of time. In Slow Productivity, Cal Newport describes that it took Newton 15–20 years to come up with gravity. Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master one skill.
The reason why we want to focus on one thing for so long is that there will always be a phase called the “dip” — where you feel frustrated, nothing works, and you get bored.
During that time, if you have more options, you can easily switch to another one. More options allow you to quit easily. And this is not a feature; it’s a bug.
I’ve also seen this with friends and colleagues. They start a business or career, and as soon as it gets difficult, they transition to their family’s business or use father money to start something completely different. They have the option, so they take it and quit quickly.
People with no options don’t have that choice (including me 😊). They just have to grind through that “dip” phase, and most of the time they come out the other side in a much better place.
A good example of this is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the GOT prequel. It’s a short 30-minute, 6-episode series. The director had a very low budget and couldn’t do the big battle scenes like those in Game of Thrones. But within those constraints, with fewer options, they made the best of what they had — and the show turned out really well. It has near-perfect 10 IMDB ratings, which sparked the GOT and Breaking Bad fan war. 😂
So if you have multiple options, I can’t guarantee you’ll come out better. But if you have fewer options and stay focused on one thing for a longer period of time, you will come out as definitely a better person.
I’m curious — have you ever been in a situation where having too many options made things harder for you? Or do you think more options are always better? Let me know in the comments.
💼 Jobs to Apply:
1. Senior Product Engineer (Flutter, GCP)
In the last year Visible has grown from 15 to 30 people, adding a data science team, Lead PM, Comms and Policy Lead, Director of Clinical Affairs and Research, and more. Our product foundations are strong, the mobile app and other systems are in good condition, and now we’re looking for a Senior Product Engineer to help us go further.
Salary Range: £88,000 - £100,000 annually
✍🏻 Articles to read:
1. Riverpod Best Practices You’re Probably Missing by Majid Hajian
I use Riverpod in every new project, and it is really valuable. I think all these issues described here, If we had known this earlier, we could have avoided a lot of pitfalls, rebuilds, and bugs. I highly recommend going through this if you are using Riverpod as a starter in your projects.
2. Willingness to Look Stupid Is a Genuine Moat in Creative Work by sharif.io
Every day, I post new content. Despite my fear that it may look foolish or it will not resonate with people, I still keep doing it because I feel compelled to share my ideas.
I share through short blogs, YouTube videos, and this newsletter to organize my thoughts and share them with the world, hoping that someone will appreciate them someday.
3. 11 Top Tips for a Successful Technical Presentation by hanselman
Have a Reset Strategy (One-Click)
Know Your Affectations (Ssssssseriously)
Know When To Move and When To Not Move (Red light!)
For the Love of All That Is Holy, FONT SIZE, People (See that?)
Speak their Language (Know the Audience)
Be Utterly Prepared (No excuses)
CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT (Have some)
System Setup (Be unique, but don’t be nuts)
Speaking (Um…)
Advancing Slides (No lasers!)
Care (deeply)
4. Taste for Makers by Paul Graham
After the AI boom, I believe that mediocre work is a thing of the past. What truly matters now is you, your style, and your taste. Your taste is distinctive to you, and to discover it, you must experiment with a variety of things to see what resonates with you. I enjoy Paul Graham’s lengthy essays, and this one particularly resonated with me.
📺 Videos to Watch:
1. IntelliJ IDEA- The Documentary | an Origin Story
My first impression of IntelliJ was through Android Studio. I like JetBrains for a few reasons:
They’re not dependent on VC funding and have been profitable for 25 years.
They have great refactoring tools, shortcuts, and plugin support.
I only got to know these tools after trying them with an open-source license, and I realized how good they are.
They have different tool for each problem. For web development, I like WebStorm; for Python, it’s PyCharm; and for data management, DataGrip. All these tools do their jobs really well.
AI is changing things quickly, making it tough for companies without a lot of money to adapt. I understand JetBrains is taking a slow approach to AI, but I hope they come out stronger since they have a great product mindset. I tried Cursor (forked VS Code) last year but ended up back with IntelliJ.
The JetBrains CEO mentioned the documentary that they’re in the middle of a tornado, needing to keep a safe distance, but also not being way to far.
2. Chip Huyen- Building When It Feels Like There’s Nothing Left to Build - The Pragmatic Summit
I have read Chip’s AI engineering book, and it’s really great. To summarize this talk: we are now living in a world where the question is not “How to build,” but “What to build,” and also “Enjoy building that.”
3. 4 Things Nobody Tells You About AI
It’s good to see Tiago address contradictions in AI. I agree that despite having time, we feel compelled to use these tools to stay competitive. These tools often serve as sales and marketing tactics for AI companies. While I use an AI tool, I am not in a rush or under pressure.
📦 Code from Packages
1. Auto Updater
This plugin allows Flutter desktop apps to automatically update themselves (based on sparkle and winsparkle).
🔖Post I Found Useful
1. Standing Out in 2026
🛠️ Tool I Found Useful
1. US Job Market Visualizer
👋🏻 That’s it, Folks
I am currently open for consultation part-time/full-time, specialized in mobile development with Android and Flutter. So if you are looking for someone to:
Build product architecture from scratch
Train existing developers to level up
Fix major bottlenecks in legacy codebase
Improve code quality
And most importantly, ship things faster
then reach out to me at info@burhanrashid52.com.