3 ms·

It took me some time to fully understand that yes, sometime other people need things that might appear as "preferential treatment" to other people. And we shoul

by znpy 6y ago

It took me some time to fully understand that yes, sometime other people need things that might appear as "preferential treatment" to other people. And we should just STFU about that. A while ago I was talking with some aquaintances about maternity leave and since we were already talking about work it struck me: if I was forced to take 1-2 years off work completely now that I'm not even 30, all of a sudden, it would be pretty much catastrophic for my career. My skills would get mostly outdated given how fast the industry evolves (thank you kubernetes) and I would probably fall a bit out of touch with dealing with coworkers and stuff. I then thought about some of my female colleagues and other female workers I know and how much could they struggle in the future or have struggled in the past. A lot of things started to make sense. I though back to when I was on call an was frequently called in the middle of the night, and how newborn children are probably[0] way heavier on parents. And it kinda dawned on me how important is, often, to "pick up the slack" for other people. So yeah... After these kind of realization my opinion changed a bit. I agreed already with most work-life balance policies but I hadn't had such a strong realization. I now think that it's a good thing that companies allow parents to take time off and deal with both work and personal/family time. Actually, companies should be encouraged/forced to do so on a regular basis. I also think that if you don't agree with me you're piece of shit and you should really go fuck yourself with a cactus. I don't have children of my own now, but I might have in the future. It should really be our background priority to work for better working conditions across all the industry and across other industries too. If you don't want to have children then it's fine (it's your life, do whatever you want) but you're an asshole if you think that everybody should march at your own pace just because you took that decision. --- [0] i'm writing "probably" just because i haven't had kids of my own yet, so i don't really know what i'm talking about. I can imagine, but I don't really know.

eesmith 6y ago
> My skills would get mostly outdated given how fast the industry evolves Except ... it doesn't. There's plenty of stories about people who took substantial time off before coming back to software development who say there wasn't much real change. There's substantial churn, absolutely. How many popular web frameworks have there been? But substantial change that would be catastrophic for a career? No. As one reference point, the list of topics to study as background before going to a tech interview hasn't really changed much in a long time. That knowledge doesn't disappear after a year or two. As another reference point, Sweden has 480 days of parental leave where 90 days is exclusively for each of the parents. Many people in software development take over a year off, without it being catastrophic to their career.
- alibarber 6y ago
  > There's substantial churn, absolutely. How many popular web frameworks have there been? But substantial change that would be catastrophic for a career? No. Finally! In my whole career so far, I could maybe name you about 2 frameworks that I'm both a) actively aware of and b) know when would be a good idea to use. I have not struggled to find work. What I consider to be _real_ skills, such as knowing how to work to a deadline, prioritise, work with difficult people, research, communicate, knowlege of good coding standards some good solid fundamental CS understanding, only seem to improve with time. I'm not saying to stop being curious about whatever floats your boat, but it's not like you're going to miss out on 'the next big thing' by sitting out a year (or, in the case of some of the best engineers / managers I know, moving careers for a decade).

by znpy 6y ago

eesmith 6y ago

> My skills would get mostly outdated given how fast the industry evolves Except ... it doesn't. There's plenty of stories about people who took substantial time off before coming back to software development who say there wasn't much real change. There's substantial churn, absolutely. How many popular web frameworks have there been? But substantial change that would be catastrophic for a career? No. As one reference point, the list of topics to study as background before going to a tech interview hasn't really changed much in a long time. That knowledge doesn't disappear after a year or two. As another reference point, Sweden has 480 days of parental leave where 90 days is exclusively for each of the parents. Many people in software development take over a year off, without it being catastrophic to their career.

alibarber 6y ago
> There's substantial churn, absolutely. How many popular web frameworks have there been? But substantial change that would be catastrophic for a career? No. Finally! In my whole career so far, I could maybe name you about 2 frameworks that I'm both a) actively aware of and b) know when would be a good idea to use. I have not struggled to find work. What I consider to be _real_ skills, such as knowing how to work to a deadline, prioritise, work with difficult people, research, communicate, knowlege of good coding standards some good solid fundamental CS understanding, only seem to improve with time. I'm not saying to stop being curious about whatever floats your boat, but it's not like you're going to miss out on 'the next big thing' by sitting out a year (or, in the case of some of the best engineers / managers I know, moving careers for a decade).