My morning coffee routine taught me a valuable lesson about developer tools… and why more isn’t always better.

Every day starts the same way. I make coffee first thing, following a precise process that’s become second nature.

I keep my beans in a Cuisinart grinder that’s perfectly sized for one bag of coffee. Here’s what it looked like after April Fool’s Day:

After I grind the beans, I pour them into my AeroPress, add hot water, and plunge down.

(This ritual has sparked other developer insights before, like when I ​waited too long to replace my AeroPress plunger​).

But something changed in my routine recently:

I switched to a different coffee brand. And it was this decision that caused my problem.

As I poured the fresh package into my empty grinder… coffee beans erupted from the top of my Cuisinart. Beans scattered across the counter, tumbled to the floor, and rolled in every direction.

I spent the next few minutes on my hands and knees, searching for every last precious bean. When I checked the package, I discovered the problem:

16 ounces. A full third more than my usual 12-ounce bags.

My grinder, perfectly calibrated for 12 ounces, couldn’t handle the overflow.

We’ve been trained to expect that more is always better.

But sometimes, more makes a mess.

Too many dev tools try to be everything to all devs. They overflow with features, promising to solve every possible problem.

But developers don’t want tools that do everything.

They want tools that solve their specific problem, right now.

Get clear about the ​use cases that matter​ and you’ll elevate your technical content.

That will build trust with developers, because you’ll know longer be promising everything.

And you’ll help them avoid a big mess.