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It's actually really simple why we can't all just throw ourselves in 100% to every new thing. Instead of learning a new tool I could be writing app code for my

It's actually really simple why we can't all just throw ourselves in 100% to every new thing. Instead of learning a new tool I could be writing app code for my client or employer who needs the code for their business. I have a finite amount of time & energy so I try to use it well.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
And that's fine! You can still do that. That's the thing -- you can stop climbing wherever it makes sense. If YarnMaster5000 comes out tomorrow and claims to simplify your code so much that you can write a webapp simply by pressing the ` key, you don't have to spend one second learning it. Just stick with whatever you were already doing. The time to learn it is whenever the next project kicks off. Ah, yes, that's the crux of it. We'd love it if the world would just stop changing so we can relax and stop learning. Well, too bad! Here's the uncomfortable truth: the moment you let yourself get too comfortable, your career dries up. That fear is a powerful motivator, so I suggest internalizing it. If you can't force yourself to love learning, then become afraid that if you don't learn it you'll find yourself unemployable after 5 years. This almost happened to me, so I'm speaking from direct experience. I came from gamedev, and low level skills like that really do not translate into "I'm getting paid $INSANE/yr in a hot new startup." In fact, you can barely pass webdev interviews because you have to go "Uhh... Yeah, I worked on Rails back in 2007 or so. I guess I have some learning to do. But just trust me, I can learn it as I go. Oh wait, you don't believe me? But... I've spent my whole life learning as I go... It's fine if I don't already know Rails even though you're hiring for a senior rails dev position." That situation is exactly what happens when you stop being on top of all this stuff. Go to sleep and wake up 5 years later and suddenly getting a job is hard. It's easy to smirk ad feel like it won't happen to you, but FWIW the way you feel about JS now is exactly how I felt about Rails in 2007.
- dagw 9y ago
  We'd love it if the world would just stop changing so we can relax and stop learning. The truth is that we'll never have enough time learn everything we should learn and every minute I spend re-learning a different way to do something I already know how to do is a minute I'm not spending learning something actually new and useful. If, for example, I'm writing a web app related to storing and processing geology related measurements (which I am) I should be spending most of my 'learning time' studying things related to geology and the processing of said measurements, not re-learning how web development is done this week.
  - Gigablah 9y ago
    You will have to "re-learn" web development regardless. HTML, CSS, HTTP, browser features and compatibilities etc are also continuously evolving.
    - dagw 9y ago
      That's not really re-learning. That's incrementally building on and evolving existing knowledge. Virtually all my HTML and HTTP knowledge from 199X is still valid.
      - Gigablah 9y ago
        And somehow your JS knowledge isn't?
        LyndsySimon 9y ago
        JavaScript has changed significantly more than HTML, HTTP, or even CSS.
- tome 9y ago
  > That's the thing -- you can stop climbing wherever it makes sense. If YarnMaster5000 comes out tomorrow and claims to simplify your code so much that you can write a webapp simply by pressing the ` key, you don't have to spend one second learning it. Just stick with whatever you were already doing. And there you are a few comments above telling us we have to use Webpack because other older module systems are zombies that came and went.
- jodrellblank 9y ago
  Ah, yes, that's the crux of it. We'd love it if the world would just stop changing so we can relax and stop learning. Well, too bad! Something about this smells. What is it. Is it the way "we would love it if it stopped changing" but it's us who is changing it? Is it that the changes are reinventing the wheel? Churn because frothy churn is easier and more profitable than meticulous, solid, long-lasting foundations? Or is it that we still haven't managed to orient the programming industry around 'finished' software such that if we ever 'finish' software we immediately stop being employed, so we have a pathological need for software to continually need to be rewritten, at the level the average programmer can rewrite?
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    It doesn't matter if I agree with you in principle. If you don't play the game, your career will dry up. The world won't care.
    - jodrellblank 9y ago
      From your other posts, your main problem was that you didn't want to / couldn't move to where jobs were, not that low level gamedev code is no longer being written - VR and AR are testifying to that. How is this client side rewrite every few months fundamentally different from the broken window fallacy? as in, unsustainable because it adds no value overall?

sillysaurus3 9y ago

And that's fine! You can still do that. That's the thing -- you can stop climbing wherever it makes sense. If YarnMaster5000 comes out tomorrow and claims to simplify your code so much that you can write a webapp simply by pressing the ` key, you don't have to spend one second learning it. Just stick with whatever you were already doing. The time to learn it is whenever the next project kicks off. Ah, yes, that's the crux of it. We'd love it if the world would just stop changing so we can relax and stop learning. Well, too bad! Here's the uncomfortable truth: the moment you let yourself get too comfortable, your career dries up. That fear is a powerful motivator, so I suggest internalizing it. If you can't force yourself to love learning, then become afraid that if you don't learn it you'll find yourself unemployable after 5 years. This almost happened to me, so I'm speaking from direct experience. I came from gamedev, and low level skills like that really do not translate into "I'm getting paid $INSANE/yr in a hot new startup." In fact, you can barely pass webdev interviews because you have to go "Uhh... Yeah, I worked on Rails back in 2007 or so. I guess I have some learning to do. But just trust me, I can learn it as I go. Oh wait, you don't believe me? But... I've spent my whole life learning as I go... It's fine if I don't already know Rails even though you're hiring for a senior rails dev position." That situation is exactly what happens when you stop being on top of all this stuff. Go to sleep and wake up 5 years later and suddenly getting a job is hard. It's easy to smirk ad feel like it won't happen to you, but FWIW the way you feel about JS now is exactly how I felt about Rails in 2007.

dagw 9y ago
We'd love it if the world would just stop changing so we can relax and stop learning. The truth is that we'll never have enough time learn everything we should learn and every minute I spend re-learning a different way to do something I already know how to do is a minute I'm not spending learning something actually new and useful. If, for example, I'm writing a web app related to storing and processing geology related measurements (which I am) I should be spending most of my 'learning time' studying things related to geology and the processing of said measurements, not re-learning how web development is done this week.
- Gigablah 9y ago
  You will have to "re-learn" web development regardless. HTML, CSS, HTTP, browser features and compatibilities etc are also continuously evolving.
  - dagw 9y ago
    That's not really re-learning. That's incrementally building on and evolving existing knowledge. Virtually all my HTML and HTTP knowledge from 199X is still valid.
    - Gigablah 9y ago
      And somehow your JS knowledge isn't?
      - LyndsySimon 9y ago
        JavaScript has changed significantly more than HTML, HTTP, or even CSS.
tome 9y ago
> That's the thing -- you can stop climbing wherever it makes sense. If YarnMaster5000 comes out tomorrow and claims to simplify your code so much that you can write a webapp simply by pressing the ` key, you don't have to spend one second learning it. Just stick with whatever you were already doing. And there you are a few comments above telling us we have to use Webpack because other older module systems are zombies that came and went.
jodrellblank 9y ago
Ah, yes, that's the crux of it. We'd love it if the world would just stop changing so we can relax and stop learning. Well, too bad! Something about this smells. What is it. Is it the way "we would love it if it stopped changing" but it's us who is changing it? Is it that the changes are reinventing the wheel? Churn because frothy churn is easier and more profitable than meticulous, solid, long-lasting foundations? Or is it that we still haven't managed to orient the programming industry around 'finished' software such that if we ever 'finish' software we immediately stop being employed, so we have a pathological need for software to continually need to be rewritten, at the level the average programmer can rewrite?
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  It doesn't matter if I agree with you in principle. If you don't play the game, your career will dry up. The world won't care.
  - jodrellblank 9y ago
    From your other posts, your main problem was that you didn't want to / couldn't move to where jobs were, not that low level gamedev code is no longer being written - VR and AR are testifying to that. How is this client side rewrite every few months fundamentally different from the broken window fallacy? as in, unsustainable because it adds no value overall?