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It's hard to know for sure without more details but there was a short story "The Road Not Taken
" which could possibly match this premise. This wasn't a web original, though it's possible you could have thought it was one if you read it online. Alternatively, there could be an adaptation I don't know about.
In that story, developing faster than light travel was simple and could be done relatively early on in a species' technological development (so FTL is easy). However, once you'd done it your development in other areas tended to stall (which would be the FTL route in this case). Humanity never developed it and so ended up developing advanced technology that other species lacked (which could be the human route you speak of).

Ftl is easy but you can either go human route or ftl route
Edited by Omega-Void