How to pick the right technology?

In greek mythology, Odysseus resisted the tempting voices of the singing sirens through shackling himself on the mast of the ship. You and i, we all are Odysseus and the sirens are everywhere!

These times are crazy: Wherever you look, new shiny technologies, libraries and frameworks pop up. The overload of information causes frustration and confusion and jumping around from one technology to the other is extremely unsatisfying, unproductive and often ends in surrender.

My personal way to get rid of this problem is a strong commitment to the very basics of programming: Functions, loops, variables, classes, objects. I try to avoid the usage of any libraries unless it really means a huge benefit for my project. In terms of Creative Coding, i always aim to understand the fundamentals instead of just producing colorful imagery that i can not control. This approach payed off pretty well, because today it enables me to jump on any technology very, very quickly. From my opinion you should not chain yourself to a fancy framework, instead focus on a strong foundation. Processing and p5.js are both good choices to do so.

Another important hint i wanna give you here is that you should watch out for someone who inspires you. Keeping up the motivation is challenging and connecting with people who share a passion is very helpful.

Generally speaking, i would like to encourage you to be critical. Software is often shiny but more often unnecessary. Keep that in mind and protect yourself against distractions and cheap temptations.