The Developer's Dystopian Future

When I started, it was PHP/JS, but after a while quickly changed that to Ruby/Rails, Python, JS/CSS/HTML and design (can't do a solo project without knowing some colour theory, typography basics etc). With only six things to tick off, it was less of a daunting task and I felt like I was making progress.

I've added to that list both at work and around work since, but as somebody above noted, you can get burned out from coding all the time - sometimes you need to recharge and wait for the fire to come back.

The one thing I do know, is that if you have a passion for the craft and nurture it, you will be able to find a balance :)

Focus on what you're making. Let the process sort itself as you go. Step back from the computer and think about what you can do by yourself, with simple tools. Get a pencil and a sheet of paper. With this simple sheet of paper and this simple pencil, you can draw many things. You can paint a whole landscape (in gray tones, but still), you can make a dumb doodle or you can design a machine. You don't have to know how to draw, you can start today and eventually get good at it. First the circle, then the rest of the owl. [0]

All that with just a simple pencil and a sheet of paper. Both have a lot of engineering behind them, so making paper and pencils isn't easy from scratch, but as objects, they're simple and you can use them for many things.

I spent so much time worrying about tools, worrying about browser compatibility, worrying about doing things the right way, increasing performance... that I didn't do what I really wanted to do: make good stuff, for me and for other people.

There's no simple way to avoid the trap of keeping up with everything, but I've found that focusing on the intended result (what you want to create, be it a product, an experiment or a tool), picking a toolset early and sticking to this toolset/stack is what worked best for me.

* * *

Here's good news from present me: as you gain more experience, (which can correlate to the older you get, especially when you start early), you get better at knowing when something will really improve your work (making it faster, better looking, more enjoyable, better performing, more efficient, etc.) and when it won't. Perhaps the article's author is actually on to something. He intuitively knows New Tool X won't improve his work much, and he's wiser than his younger self, who would waste time chasing non-essential niceties.

[0]: https://imgur.com/RadSf

In 10 years you'll be The Gray Beard, the mythical wizard who interfaces with Earth and Heaven, bringing otherworldly knowledge to our ultimately trivial concerns. You'll guide the younger and unwise in the creation of more ultimately trivial concerns, but with a heightened sense of what the Heavens want us to do.

You'll also support legacy systems, because penitence is one of the keys to sapience and the aforementioned otherworldly knowledge and ability to interface with Earth and Heaven.

* Understanding binary vs decimal math, deeply. Implementing decimal math out of integers nothing else is available.

* Understanding locking strategies and the need for shared data protection. Build and break and rebuild things until you can intuit then prove deadlock, lock failure or long waits when you suspect their effects.

* Getting good at debugging. Don't point the finger of suspicion at anyone or anything (unless it's at you or your work), /prove/ what's wrong. Toward that end, don't "kill the (error) messenger"; it's just the first to speak up about a problem that might be layers deeper in your software stack.

* Learn data; it outlives code. SQL may bore you but it pays the bills. You didn't like Linear Algebra in school? Well, I didn't much either, but I sure am glad now I took it back then.

* Be the person who can say, "Yeah, I can fix that," and just do that.

* Learn business areas like General Ledger and Accounts Receivable. Be the person who can say "Yeah, I can keep a balance on that for you" and do it.

* As far as application areas go, remember that money, unlike computer languages, never goes out of style.