In the world of software engineering, it's easy to get caught up in debates about which technologies are best. We pour endless energy into arguing the merits of different languages, frameworks, and architectures. But here's the thing: at the end of the day, the specific technologies don't matter nearly as much as whether we're using them to deliver real value to customers.

Take Python for example. For years, it was dismissed as a language that couldn't scale to power large, high-performance systems. Yet today, it's the backbone of massive sites like Instagram. What changed? Not the fundamental nature of Python - but rather, Instagram's engineers committed to rigorous typing, static analysis, and building custom tooling to make Python work at their scale. They focused on the engineering practices, not the language holy wars.

Of course, using the right tool for the job is important. But the job is the key part. When engineers get so enamored with technology that they lose sight of the customer problem they're trying to solve, projects go off the rails. The infamous Ford Edsel is a prime example. Ford's engineers sank huge resources into gimmicks like push-button transmissions, neglecting basic market research. The result? A car that no one wanted, and a $2 billion failure.

The Segway tells a similar tale. The engineering was brilliant - a self-balancing personal transporter straight out of science fiction! But the team overlooked pesky details like cost, battery life, and the fact that it was illegal to ride on most sidewalks. Focusing on technology over practical customer needs doomed an otherwise impressive invention.

So how can you avoid falling into this trap of technological tail-chasing? Watch out for warning signs like a lack of clear customer value, perfectionism at the expense of shipping, disappearing down rabbit holes, and losing the thread of why you're doing the work in the first place. When you see these red flags, it's time to reconnect with your north star - the customer.

This doesn't mean you should never do technical exploration. When it's grounded in customer and business goals, balanced with short-term deliverables, managed with a prioritized backlog and time boxes, and regularly re-evaluated, it can pay huge dividends. The key is maintaining that relentless customer focus as your guidepost.

Ultimately, technology is a means to an end - and that end is delivering value to users. Keep that firmly in mind, and you'll be able to harness the power of technology to solve real problems instead of chasing shiny objects. Let your customers' needs drive your technical choices, not the other way around. 

That's the path to engineering success.