My last two posts were about not installing things the browser already gives you — native elements over libraries. But that's only half a rule, and leaving it there would be dishonest, because I install plenty of libraries. The point was never "zero dependencies." It was "no redundant ones."
So here's the other half: the libraries I reach for without a second thought, and the simple rule I use to decide.
The rule
A library earns a place in my project when:
It solves something the platform genuinely doesn't — or doesn't do safely.
