Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony • Hacker News Board

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#11

Post by tscherno » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:03 PM UTC

oafitupa wrote: post #6

Why bother learning another language that is almost the same, like PHP and Ruby? In both you need to keep up with lots of dependencies and practices that keep popping up, and it's a waste of time doing it for both in parallel. I'd say it's better to focus on one language, and if it becomes obsolete I don't see why you couldn't just dedicate a week to master the other one. And anyway I don't see how one of those langu…

I don't think that it is possible to master a language in a week. You can learn the basic concepts for sure but there is usually a lot more like idiomatic problem solving, libraries, frameworks, best practices etc.

In my experience you acquire those by working with the language every day for a year or so... and then you are still far away from "master".

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#12

Post by im3w1l » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:07 PM UTC

vicbrooker wrote: post #4

ilghiro wrote: post #2

I was actually speaking with a a friend and tech recruiter about this yesterday. He mentioned that actually, being a "One Trick Pony" is pretty good for people looking to contract. Obviously he didn't mean simply knowing one language or framework and no others whatsoever but rather that for contract work companies are looking for people that are highly specialized to come in for a very short period of time. A Full-St…

It's great when companies find someone who solves their exact problem, it sucks when you're the guy who can only solve one problem though. Especially when someone finds a way to automate a solution. I think Valve described the 'T' employee: know one area very deeply and a broad range of others reasonably well. Seems to be a good approach :) Maybe another way of looking at what your friend said is to just be specific…

How about diversifying then? Not in the sense of knowing everything shallowly. But in the sense of knowing like 5 things very deeply.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#13

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:07 PM UTC

oafitupa wrote: post #6

Why bother learning another language that is almost the same, like PHP and Ruby? In both you need to keep up with lots of dependencies and practices that keep popping up, and it's a waste of time doing it for both in parallel. I'd say it's better to focus on one language, and if it becomes obsolete I don't see why you couldn't just dedicate a week to master the other one. And anyway I don't see how one of those langu…

[deleted]

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#14

Post by vicbrooker » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:13 PM UTC

im3w1l wrote: post #12

vicbrooker wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's great when companies find someone who solves their exact problem, it sucks when you're the guy who can only solve one problem though. Especially when someone finds a way to automate a solution. I think Valve described the 'T' employee: know one area very deeply and a broad range of others reasonably well. Seems to be a good approach :) Maybe another way of looking at what your friend said is to just be specific…

How about diversifying then? Not in the sense of knowing everything shallowly. But in the sense of knowing like 5 things very deeply.

Icebraining's wiki link below hits it on the head, but my view is that knowing too much stuff deeply might make it hard to collaborate in teams as it makes roles really hard to define.

Happens in soccer a lot - teams with really versatile players will usually get whipped by teams who have specialists in each position. Top teams aim for squads with 2 players for every position, not 2 positions for every player.

Hope that makes sense, it's getting late here :)

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#15

Post by mrbig4545 » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:22 PM UTC

jack of all trades, master of none.

no thanks, i'll stick to being an expert (and getting paid accordingly) in one field, and adjust when needed.

you don't get brick layers randomly learning carpet fitting and welding "just incase"

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#16

Post by venomsnake » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:30 PM UTC

I treat languages and frameworks as tools. Oftentimes disposable.

My real value is being able to solve a problem in a timely manner. Or even recognize it. With internet so wide and vast there will be people that are better than me at anything.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#17

Post by capdiz » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:38 PM UTC

"Lifetime careers no longer exist. I knew a bunch of people that were charging $200 per hour to do HTML in the early 90’s. Frontpage ate their lunch." Still sounds like a lifetime career to me. The "one trick pony" will always evolve with the requirements of the time. Though your observations are limited to tech, if a programmer succeeded in something like farming or health science that would make a great career change. So yes lifetime careers do exist. Its only the requirements/tools that evolve overtime.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#18

Post by kxo » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:42 PM UTC

Luyt wrote: post #10

spiralpolitik wrote: post #3

They said that for the mainframe and mini people at the end of the 90s and yet all the people who I know who worked in those areas are still employed, still making good money, and will still be doing so for the foreseeable future. Technology lasts a surprisingly long time and not everybody needs to keep jumping on the new hotness.

I visited a workshop a few weeks ago, and also attending was a COBOL programmer (in his 50s) who still was active on that platform. I wonder whether it could be lucrative to learn COBOL (and CICS!) and work on those legacy systems that are still out there. "While CICS has its highest profile among financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies, over 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies are reported to ru…

There are COBOL devs who actually realize what they are worth and billing (banks) 200-300k accordingly.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#19

Post by robalfonso » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:43 PM UTC

This can be an issue if you aren't able to pick up new skill sets quickly. As another poster said languages and frameworks are tools. While you can't be a master at a new language in a week you can certainly become functional in it. I always look to hire people with general aptitude for technology not just in one language even if they only work in that one language. There are always going to be people who learned one language or framework and they cannot apply that to any new endeavor, like wise there are folks who pick up new things easily. Conceptually everything we do falls into a few categories and as long as you know whats possible then determining the way you do X with that tool is the only challenge.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#20

Post by atonse » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 12:43 PM UTC

mrbig4545 wrote: post #15

jack of all trades, master of none. no thanks, i'll stick to being an expert (and getting paid accordingly) in one field, and adjust when needed. you don't get brick layers randomly learning carpet fitting and welding "just incase"

Actually, to extend your brick layer analogy, what if that's all you do and we devise drones that can lay bricks really fast? Then what? You're going to have to compete with the other 50,000 unemployed brick layers now looking for welding jobs.