The 45-tool problem: why Juejin 必备 roundups have stopped helping me pick AI tools

Short summary

AI tool roundups have exploded from carefully curated 7-8 recommendations to exhaustive 45+ listings, yet working engineers still rely on just 3-4 tools (Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT). The format sacrifices curation for completeness, excelling at discovery but failing at selection. Real tool picking requires usage data, case studies, and stress tests—evidence conspicuously absent from most recommendations beyond the top 5 entries.

• •Roundups inflated from 8 curated tools to 45+ without meaningful signal loss to readers
• •Working engineers stick to 3-4 core tools despite exposure to 50+ options per roundup
• •Roundups excel at discovery but fail at selection; picking requires evidence, not vibes

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