I read the post, and I've got to say that I've been coding every day since I was about 7, and I'm over 40 now. I've got to say that the problem is not will I not be employable, the problem is that there are not enough programmers to do the work, and not enough marketing staff to sell the products and get the software/hardware out there. So, yeah this guy is toying with Javascript and all the random frameworks that come out every day but I'd say stick to performance, security and scalability in your code and there are only a few languages out there that you'll ever really be writing software in anyway. It's also better to be writing your own software, not something for someone else. Because at the end of the day, its better to make yourself wealthly than someone else.
The Developer's Dystopian Future
111–120 of 209 posts
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Relax. One of the lovely things about being older is having the confidence to be able to be able to point out that the latest fad is just a warmed-over rehash of something old. It's important to keep up with the new things, but the fact of the matter is that there is very little in the world of software development that's actually new. Swift? Please. If you know ML (1970's), Smalltalk (1980), and Objective-C (1983),…
> One of the lovely things about being older is having the confidence to be able to be able to point out that the latest fad is just a warmed-over rehash of something old. Sane advice. I'm 39, and I'm rather stunned to see 27yr olds calling themselves "old" and disillusioned with tech and what not ... let alone 17! If you like to build things, hone your system level thinking .. which lasts longer than Angular/Backbon…
I'm in my 50s, and I'm having a ton of fun with this new stuff.
After burning out at a startup that did everything in 68000 assembler (nice architecture...) in my 20s I'm getting back to dev work now and finding I still have aptitude and curiosity.
There is a lot happening. But the change has barely has started yet. I can see hints of new shapes coming over the horizon, and anyone who thinks they're going to be needing the same skills ten years from now is fooling themselves.
Imperative and functional styles have been around for decades already, it's true there's a lot of pointless reinvention (at worst) and refinement (at best) happening.
But very different things will start happening within the decade. IMO the fallout after the bootstrapping will be like nothing anyone has seen before.
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#113We're in our late thirties and just spent the last month (pretty much 24/7) learning golang while developing our own cloud-based relational database (which has some really impressive benchmarks by the way) so this whole idea that you cease becoming adaptable to new technologies the moment you hit 30 is silly.
If anything, we find it's the early 20-somethings these days that are rusted on to javascript or ruby and can't seem to work in anything else. There isn't any passion anymore.
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#114Honest, legitimate post that I very much enjoyed. However I do think posts like this feed in ageism. I say this because it posits that the change is that the author is older and has more things to do, therefore they've fallen out with technology. The take-away invariably being that people who are older and have more things to do have fallen out with technology, whereas the young are still with it, whatever it is. Let…
I'm 27, used to be in tech like the biggest nerd of them all. But not anymore, frankly I'm tired of all of the changes that happened in the industry - it's not that I'm tired of learning but it's that the changes lack substance. Learning a new framework that does the same thing like layout or user design; it's not like learning music and digging into a deeper discipline like moving from acoustic strumming to jazz imp…
I reminded a co-worker last week as he was figuring out whether to use Grunt or Gulp - Computers aren't the thing. They're the thing that gets us to the thing. - Quoted from Halt and Catch Fire.
Photography has its own version of the same quote. Amateurs worry about equipment, Professionals worry about time, Masters worry about light.
User do not care about the technology used, they care about results.
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#115I've been coding for 30 years. I've seen many people like the OP who are not totally passionate about tech and it's sort of a "grind" to keep up. Meanwhile I have six children and I've been through the "PTA President" years and now as my children grow up I've found myself engulfed in all sorts of new tech. I am not a young man but I'm not old either. I know people who were in tech 20 years before me and some of them stay sharp while most of them find new things to do in life. (Play the piano, learn to play guitar, what ever). I have zero judgement of these people, they find a path through life that is rewarding to them and I'm glad to see them happy. I personally find learning new technologies and pushing myself to the edge an exhilarating experience. I am always frustrated when I start working with a new technology, but I push through that and once I "understand" it I'm fired up with new ideas on how to apply that technology to problems that come my way.
I think the OP should certainly worry if their drive comes from the need to "turn the crank". In 10 years the crank will be harder to turn and if you're not passionate about it you might as well find a new vocation now.
My father learned HTML when he was 62, quit his job and started a web development shop. I hope when I'm in my late years I'm learning new tech and adopting it as quickly as I can to apply it to whatever new problems come my way. My chosen vocation is my passion and thus the parts that feel like a grind to most people feel like a challenge to me and I enjoy it.
I hope all of us find our passions and it's perfectly fine if it's not learning the latest and greatest language brought to you by the multibillion dollar company of the day.
Follow you passions, be happy, life is short.
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#116Honest, legitimate post that I very much enjoyed. However I do think posts like this feed in ageism. I say this because it posits that the change is that the author is older and has more things to do, therefore they've fallen out with technology. The take-away invariably being that people who are older and have more things to do have fallen out with technology, whereas the young are still with it, whatever it is. Let…
Is it ageism? Or is it just experience? If you've been in the industry for 10+ years, there's a certain cynicism that occurs, when you're learning a new framework/language every 2 years that's just an incremental improvement on another language. Just because a boss tells you to. "Oh learn this, it's gonna be the next big thing. It's gonna propel your career. Oh, you're done with that? Now, learn this new thing for yo…
So your boss is basically telling you to learn all of these things so that you will remain a cog in the machine. Like running really fast trying to move ahead, but really you're just on the treadmill and staying in the same place.
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#117I'm not even legally an adult, and I feel like things are moving too fast for me. At 17 years. I guess I shouldn't feel like that, but I can't help it. I started with VB6 as a kid, 6 years ago. I moved onto C++, then learned about 3D graphics and game engines, then learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, gotten into web development, learned Photoshop, some basic design, working with Linux, PHP, a little of C#. Recently tinker…
I was there ;)
-Now, I have 35-
... in my time the changes was made by Microsoft, and really I'm a sucker for learn new things.
"More things change, more stay the same"
Despite all the noise that new stuff generate, exist timeless wisdom that permeant all the good things, so focus in answer the question "What good, timeless thing I can get from this?" Even if some tech fade with the time, you keep what do you learn.
I start programming with FoxPro 2.5 in DOS, then Visual FoxPro 3. I still give credit to have used first a xbase language in how "good" I'm (in contrast with some people) doing database work, and have get OO instead of the people that chose Java... despite that Fox died long time ago.
Everything will teach you something good. For example, Pascal/Delphi show me how is work with structure. Python, what look like to have simplicity & readability. Fox, this is how you do database, and Visual Fox: This is how you do OO. Delphi, this is how look like to have performance and RAD, and not need C/C++. Erlang, this is how multi-core development must/could be, Haskell, this is the crazy world of immutability (and this is functional programming).. etc.
The mistake is follow a BIG. This burn me and others devs in my community when we follow whatever MS say. Don't do the things that a BIG tell you: Them are big, and their problems and resources are not yours. Instead, I focus in learn stuff practical for a solo developer or for a very small team (well, if you want to be part of a BIG, then do otherwise: ie: Understand the motivations and intentions of whatever you are listening).
Don't attach to anything.. too much or for too long. Learn as broad as you can, yes... but don't commit until you need to.
For example: I have read a bit about Erlang and GO. However, I don't do anything (in code) with that, because? I don't have a real, present requirement to use that tools. So, I don't get burned for that tech. I just read the websites, download the binaries, run some samples and get back to my actual, present, work. However I get aware that exist that things called Actor Model & CSP (and I google: CSP vs actor model) so I could use them, even with limitations, in python. Or just know that shared/state/mutation is bad for multi-task and passing non mutables messages is good, and use the libs at hand with that in mind.
I have not committed to GO or Erlang, but still, have learning a good, timeless, practical thing that I could carry with me.
So, not worry to get deep to soon, to fast. Learn broadly - look like is your thing!- but not worry about until the time to get worry come.
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#118I agree with you completely man. I'm working on my senior thesis to wrap up my degree and I have to use the Microsoft stack to write a real-time web app. I haven't use MS stack since MVC2, and now we're at MVC5. I'm looking over the new things and now there's this new stuff called OWIN and Katana. Wat? Buzzwords galore: iterative, modular, lightweight. Ugh. It used to work fine and now I have to learn some new thinga…
Sorry, but you don't learn actually anything new there buddy (there is more). You're right that MS packs all the un-branded wisdom into products with custom API's, SDK's coming with 20 new buzzwords describing the improvements. Well, because people love good packages. For MS software there are the Rx extensions and F#, but I'm sure that you can live with just ReactJS too. However here is some short but good read: htt…
How can you suggest reactive web if you don't know what I'm building?
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#119The author specifically mentions Angular - probably that was the last straw. I want to tell you: I feel your pain! You are not alone!
I've been in the field for almost 35 years, and I think I've seen a lot. But Angular really stands out. It's absolutely the worst kludge ever unleashed into the field with so much hype, I can't remember anything like this since EJB, but EJB is a nice piece of engineering compared with this cake. And there's not much choice - others somehow acquired the taste of it, next thing which is going to fall on our heads is polymer (the kludge of comparable proportions). Brace yourselves!
Good that I'm going to retire soon: accepting Angular and friends as a career is going to kill any remaining professional self-respect even if one had some left.
The reason for this unfortunate development (as I see it) is a total lack of culture of professional criticism in programming. People who were supposed to speak out didn't do so.
Re: The Developer's Dystopian Future
#120I've been coding for 30 years. I've seen many people like the OP who are not totally passionate about tech and it's sort of a "grind" to keep up. Meanwhile I have six children and I've been through the "PTA President" years and now as my children grow up I've found myself engulfed in all sorts of new tech. I am not a young man but I'm not old either. I know people who were in tech 20 years before me and some of them…
I love this post. So awesome. Good for your dad.