4 ms·

i just want to be a software engineer without having to continually burn away evenings and weekends studying the latest shiny, continually for the next two deca

i just want to be a software engineer without having to continually burn away evenings and weekends studying the latest shiny, continually for the next two decades, just to keep my career afloat. is that even an option anymore?

joshkpeterson 10y ago
Was that ever an option?
whenwillitstop 10y ago
Yeah, this
vectorpush 10y ago
That seems like a somewhat entitled mindset. The job market is what it is and if you don't work hard to stay competitive then you'll fall behind, that's just the reality of a high paying desk job in today's economy. We'd all love to do rewarding work for great pay with a healthy work/life balance, but it's just a fact of life that this type of opportunity is not in abundant supply.
pmyjavec 10y ago
Stick to understand fundamentals and the cruft on the top layer is easy to grok. Getting good jobs is about who you know most of the time, so just keep a network happening. Don't read too much hacker news, it kind of becomes stressful and I would try enjoy your weekends, don't worry too much about the market, a lot of good people just burn out and have breakdowns by trying to understand all that's going on and become useless anyway. Just know the basics well and learn what you need to in work hours, make time. What I'm finding is that in the end, most of the good / important stuff ends up condensed into a nice O'Reilly (or similar) volume that you can read at you leisure' later on when the hype has evaporated. If you invest yourself too much in the latest tech constantly, you run the risk of it being redundant / replaced anyway.
- Chronic9q 10y ago
  > What I'm finding is that in the end, most of the good / important stuff ends up condensed into a nice O'Reilly (or similar) volume that you can read at you leisure' later on when the hype has evaporated. If you are okay with median compensation and median project importance (internally and externally), then sure, wait a couple years when the interest has died down.

joshkpeterson 10y ago

Was that ever an option?

whenwillitstop 10y ago

Yeah, this

vectorpush 10y ago

That seems like a somewhat entitled mindset. The job market is what it is and if you don't work hard to stay competitive then you'll fall behind, that's just the reality of a high paying desk job in today's economy. We'd all love to do rewarding work for great pay with a healthy work/life balance, but it's just a fact of life that this type of opportunity is not in abundant supply.

pmyjavec 10y ago

Stick to understand fundamentals and the cruft on the top layer is easy to grok. Getting good jobs is about who you know most of the time, so just keep a network happening. Don't read too much hacker news, it kind of becomes stressful and I would try enjoy your weekends, don't worry too much about the market, a lot of good people just burn out and have breakdowns by trying to understand all that's going on and become useless anyway. Just know the basics well and learn what you need to in work hours, make time. What I'm finding is that in the end, most of the good / important stuff ends up condensed into a nice O'Reilly (or similar) volume that you can read at you leisure' later on when the hype has evaporated. If you invest yourself too much in the latest tech constantly, you run the risk of it being redundant / replaced anyway.

Chronic9q 10y ago
> What I'm finding is that in the end, most of the good / important stuff ends up condensed into a nice O'Reilly (or similar) volume that you can read at you leisure' later on when the hype has evaporated. If you are okay with median compensation and median project importance (internally and externally), then sure, wait a couple years when the interest has died down.