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Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#31

Post by samcgraw »

softwaredoug wrote: post #20

Unpopular opinion, but chase old things, not new ones. The big investment in your career will be ideas that stand the test of time. Relational Databases, data structures, programming paradigms, math, etc. Even in machine learning, just knowing core statistics and regression is more important than HottestNewArchitecture :TM:. Learn the ideas underneath these ideas, and you'll really grow and be able to better evaluate…

> The big investment in your career will be ideas that stand the test of time.

This is spot on in my experience.

As I grow in my career as a software engineer, it's funny how much more often I notice that the things that set one apart in the field is a level-headed understanding of the fundamentals and a calm resolve to take into consideration what's worked in the past, much more than one's ability to "chase the shiny".

Honorable mention of the Lindy Effect [1] here - one of my favorite ideas from Antifragile [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect [2] https://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Ince...

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#33

Post by thaufeki »

kennu wrote: post #15

Web3 will go through its current hype cycle peak (with lots of people both hyping and hating it), and in a few years we will see what actually comes of it. I predict we will find some interesting unforeseeable use cases for decentralized computing/currency, but it'll take some time.

I'm not sure that I like the term 'Web3', as it implies that everything will move in that direction, which I don't think will be the case. I just refer to it as the Decentralized Web. Centralization has many benefits over Decentralization and vice versa. Its a very healthy thing to happen though.

I do think it has a place, and is a promising emerging market. Which is why I've been interested in learning development in that area.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#34

Post by rootsudo »

samcgraw wrote: post #31
softwaredoug wrote: post #20

Unpopular opinion, but chase old things, not new ones. The big investment in your career will be ideas that stand the test of time. Relational Databases, data structures, programming paradigms, math, etc. Even in machine learning, just knowing core statistics and regression is more important than HottestNewArchitecture :TM:. Learn the ideas underneath these ideas, and you'll really grow and be able to better evaluate…

> The big investment in your career will be ideas that stand the test of time. This is spot on in my experience. As I grow in my career as a software engineer, it's funny how much more often I notice that the things that set one apart in the field is a level-headed understanding of the fundamentals and a calm resolve to take into consideration what's worked in the past, much more than one's ability to "chase the shin…

So true. For me it has become RegEx, Email, Email Servers/security, Excel, and sorting. Never thought I'd go on about it, but man. It apparently is my niche.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#35

Post by aardvark179 »

If I had to guess at one thing that will become of increasing importance over the next decade it would be privacy and security related to that. I think some jurisdictions will force this issue, and companies will have to start treating large amounts of personal data that might be stolen as a liability rather than an asset.

This is likely to be a business change as much as a technological one, but it’s definitely going to have an effect.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#36

Post by throwaway24124 »

jeppesen-io wrote: post #29

ARM will continue to make inroads in the server space as adoption picks up and as more and more projects target that architecture Personal bias talking, but I'd expect to see modest uptick in Nix[os] interest Kubernetes will transition from new and exciting to a mature platform. Expect less new big features and more minor improvements

Genuinely curious, I've heard of Nix OS but I don't know anything about it. Why do you think interest will grow, and would you recommend it?

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#38

Post by tester756 »

I don't think anything BIG is going to happen in next half of decade

I bet that:

autonomous cars will still suck.

CPU will just get lower and lower, but nothing fancy except maybe weird shapes concepts.

web (browsers) will still introduce some weird not privacy friendly stuff.

FP-ish languages ain't gonna be mainstream, probably nothing cool enough for purists and good enough for mainstream will appear.

decreasing energy usage seems to be irrelevant cuz people will use that energy in other way anyway.

quant computer still just fancy thing in lab.

__________________

or I've found one that I hope will be big! air purifier's cost and efficency improvements! shit's so expensive, yet so important

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#39

Post by conor_f »

I think that decentralization is coming in a big way. The myriad of scandals and corruption surrounding the largest tech companies being one of many push forces, and platforms supporting self hosting with little technical expertise and products encouraging the same being pull forces.

A small bit of confirmation for this in my mind is the increase in companies switching to a business model that is aware of this. "We will host it for you for a fee, but we fully support self-hosting too." ala Gitlab and Ghost (https://ghost.org/docs/hosting/)

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing in computing / programming?

#40

Post by wrnr »

At the other end of no/low code there is adoption of advanced computer graphics techniques that originated game programming and machine learning that focus around the GPU.

* Better GPU API on web and native with WebGPU

* Use of compute shaders to interface with trained NN models or to "replace" css.

* Easy reactive programming using immediate mode UI powered by GPU instead of CPU

* Data driven design ala ECS where your ECS lives in the cloud.

Not just for 3D AR/VR but also business/productivity apps in 2D.

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