Comment by judofyr

A slightly related rule that I've been trying[1] to follow: Only vary one piece at the time.

- Learning a new language? Pick a problem you know very well.

- Solving a new problem? Pick a language you know very well.

- Trying a new front-end framework? Pick a backend you know very well.

And so on…

[1]: I say "trying" because it's so easy to try all the cool new things at once.