[szastupov]

It's totally fine to be a nerd about your tools, but sometimes, productivity comes when you stop being one.

I had major productivity boosts after switching from a nerdy tool, to a more mainstream one:

Linux -> Mac

Vim -> Emacs -> Sublime -> Vscode

Gdocs/OpenOffice/iWork -> MS Office

etc...

[szastupov]

Also, stopping hating JavaScript and embracing it allowed me to do awesome things. I used to be a system/backend-only engineer, but once you get your head around UI, you get a lot more freedom.

And it's not just about getting MVPs out. For example, I had to make a few audio-processing algorithms, and in order to help myself understand and debug those, I build a simple web app to visualize each step of effects chain. Oh, and with hot module reloading, I can record a sample, then change the code and see updated results without losing the sample. Bret Victor level of productivity ;)

Oh, and after some bundling and transpiling (if necessary), I can run the same code in browsers, node.js and mobile (we're actually using jscore directly)!