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

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#71

Post by icebraining » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:07 PM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #49

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"

The actual phrase is: A jack of all trades Master of none Is still better Than a master of one Worth keeping in mind when looking for a metaphor.

That latter two parts seem to have been added later. The original uses only included the first, and then the second parts.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/jack-of-all-trades.html

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#72

Post by Swizec » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:08 PM UTC

kasey_junk wrote: post #58

I think one thing to keep in mind is the difference between "one trick pony" and "expert". A "one trick pony" literally has only worked in one environment/technology but it doesn't imply expertise. An "expert" is someone that the rest of world looks to for guidance in a particular area. Being the latter is quite valuable, but don't kid yourself, unless you are in the top 0.001% or at least "internet famous" for a giv…

> If I wanted this to be my value add, I would need to spend a lot of time and energy going from competent to expert.

That still isn't enough. Until you invest in the branding/marketing aspect, it doesn't matter how good you are, you will never be considered an expert by those who aren't experts themselves. That's the people who hire and pay experts.

Don't worry about being better than everyone you know. You're the expert, obviously you know people who are better. But potential clients don't. They probably don't even need someone who's better than you. You can solve their problem while a "better expert" is busy doing something else.

Most niches will gladly handle more than a single person serving that niche.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#73

Post by ky3 » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:36 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #29

Disclaimer: One Trick Pony. My trick: satisfying my customer's requirements, whatever they are, with whatever tools I need. Some of the tools I used in the past year are less that 5 years old, some more than 30 years old, and some much older than that (pencil & paper on a clipboard on a loading dock). Figuring out what your customer needs, then what you need, and coming up to speed on that is much more important that…

Not to disagree with your points, and I don't know if my upvote helps, but you got a bunch of lucky breaks that a significant slice of HN didn't get, which could explain the downvotes.

Consider that some are incapable of sensing the customer, much less their requirements, whatever they are.

And consider that some are trapped mooning certain tools over others.

I'm reminded of Cory Booker's "Conspiracy of Love". Cory's dad

was born to a single mother who could not take care of him. He then was raised by his grandparents, like many children in my community, but then his grandma could not take care of him.

And then he was out in the community but it was that conspiracy of love –people whose names I do not know in a small, segregated, North Carolina town – that rallied around this boy, would not let him fail, got him to school, put a roof over his head, put food on the table, taught him discipline and respect, and he made his way.

HN is that conspiracy of love for many lurkers.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#74

Post by Kurtz79 » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:57 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #66

I have to disagree. As a unemployed person, that see lots of job openings for one trick ponies, I wish I was a one trick pony, I am not, and I am already without my lunch (in the literal sense, I've been eating mostly potatoes for the last weeks, my parents don't have money to buy even chicken daily). I am mainly a Lua, C and C++ coder. Most job openings I see are for Java EE specialists, or people that know the enti…

Seriously are there no job openings for C/C++ programmers ?

Things like games(or game engines), trading, embedded systems, operating systems should still be running mostly on that...

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#75

Post by mbesto » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:57 PM UTC

> In the world of programming being a one-trick-pony is not an option

> 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.

Ha! I know plenty of SAP people who are making $200+/hr because they are one-trick ponies. So the real question is - who's anecdote is stronger, mine or jacques's?

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#76

Post by snowwrestler » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:58 PM UTC

mbesto wrote: post #75

> In the world of programming being a one-trick-pony is not an option > 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. Ha! I know plenty of SAP people who are making $200+/hr because they are one-trick ponies. So the real question is - who's anecdote is stronger, mine or jacques's?

And plenty of people still make a nice living with Fortran.

The "one" trick is apparently finding the right pony...

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#77

Post by Xylakant » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

kyllo wrote: post #62

Xylakant wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most jobs in Web and Mobile are fairly boring. People program Wordpress Templates for a living. Fix bugs on rails installations. Run 400 Servers that run a shop. The next app that displays data from an API. Actually, very few jobs are "exciting" as in "really new development or research that was never done before".

Boring is where the money is, because no one will do the boring work for free.

I'd pick fairly boring work with a nice team over interesting work with assholes every single time. Some people also prefer boring as in "uneventful" since they have kids, family, other obligations and value having a 9-5 job over interesting. There's a lot of reasons to pick boring. I can have exciting hobbies after work.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#78

Post by angersock » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 5:09 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…

...if you think that PHP and Ruby are "almost the same", you are probably one of the one-trick ponies.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#79

Post by mathgorges » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #28

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.

It might pay the bills, but you'll work on exactly ZERO new developments. You won't be able to work with Web/Embedded/Mobile. Your developments will probably be "new report at bank" or "fixing new bugs" So, unless you learn other stuff, it might get you the money but it's probably something veery boring (even more boring than your corporate CRUD app)

This is not necessarily true. I work at a mainframe shop and we have a lot of very interesting projects to work on.

Though, my experience may be unique since we're an ISV, not a business apps shop.

Re: Please Do Not Be a One Trick Pony

#80

Post by boracay » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

I'm not so sure. I think the biggest mistake programmers make is learning the same thing over and over again. It's much easier to find someone that can implement a basic server in ten different languages than someone who now the many different aspects of a desktop application. It's like everyone is a mediocre butcher that also does fish and vegetables, but you can't find any chefs. Probably myself included.