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> My skills would get mostly outdated given how fast the industry evolves Except ...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 ti

> My skills would get mostly outdated given how fast the industry evolves Except ...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).