[bryanlarsen]

Boilerplates are used on large projects:

- so you can postpone learning some of the more esoteric stuff until you actually need it, rather than guessing at the beginning

- Spending a day setting up boilerplate at the beginning of a 6 month project doesn't seem like a big deal vs spending a day tweaking the boilerplate throughout the project, but early time on a project is important, it let's you get feedback earlier.

[andybak]

> so you can postpone learning some of the more esoteric stuff until you actually need it,

This is the main appeal for me. I want to get something off the ground quickly and start learning the core concepts - not get sidetracked into understanding a peripheral tool.

[8note]

it also lets me learn by example, with a clear ipicture of how a tool or library or whatever fits into the puzzle.

[vectorpush]

> so you can postpone learning some of the more esoteric stuff until you actually need it

If you don't actually need it then why are you deploying it into production? IMO, while these boilerplates are an excellent way to get familiar with some popular tooling, I think it's a terrible idea for people to be deploying code into production that they don't need or even understand.