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This is some of the worst development advice I've ever received. Ten years ago, I was most comfortable with Flash, C and Objective C. Wow am I glad I learned J

This is some of the worst development advice I've ever received. Ten years ago, I was most comfortable with Flash, C and Objective C. Wow am I glad I learned JavaScript in 2012/2013. A few years later, I was most comfortable building web servers with Node/Express. Once again, wow am I glad I learned RoR and then Elixir/Phoenix instead of halting my education and sticking with what I was most comfortable with back then. It's been a huge productivity boost in multiple domains.

tbronchain 6y ago
Thanks, this is exactly the point of this post! My personal developer stack is getting slightly dated as my main focus over the past few years has been onto dev/sysops, seeing tons of new exotic tech being used now and then. I am really open on learning something new today if it can help me be more efficient in building my ideas in the future!
quickthrower2 6y ago
I didn’t take that comment as “don’t learn” but rather use what you know well for prototyping
- AlchemistCamp 6y ago
  To clarify, using what I already knew well was a mistake that greatly slowed down my prototyping on many occasions. There is a local maxima around what you already know due to the cost of learning something else, but it's much shallower one than many, including my past self would have guessed.
  - quickthrower2 6y ago
    Interesting take. I’ll think about this for my next project! With web there are a lot of transferable skills: http, DOM, chrome debugging, general problem solving etc. so there is that too. If I try nextjs and it does something odd I can still debug it.
unionpivo 6y ago
Well then since, you have probably already familiar with Rust + asnync ... I mean it's even out of nightly by now, I guess it's time to start cracking on nim, zig and crystal. I mean JavaScript pff... that's so last decade. /s
joelbluminator 6y ago
OK Flash died but you could have easily made a nice career going deep on C. Us devs need to find the right balance between remaining relevant and going deep enough in the tech we choose.

tbronchain 6y ago

Thanks, this is exactly the point of this post! My personal developer stack is getting slightly dated as my main focus over the past few years has been onto dev/sysops, seeing tons of new exotic tech being used now and then. I am really open on learning something new today if it can help me be more efficient in building my ideas in the future!

quickthrower2 6y ago

I didn’t take that comment as “don’t learn” but rather use what you know well for prototyping

AlchemistCamp 6y ago
To clarify, using what I already knew well was a mistake that greatly slowed down my prototyping on many occasions. There is a local maxima around what you already know due to the cost of learning something else, but it's much shallower one than many, including my past self would have guessed.
- quickthrower2 6y ago
  Interesting take. I’ll think about this for my next project! With web there are a lot of transferable skills: http, DOM, chrome debugging, general problem solving etc. so there is that too. If I try nextjs and it does something odd I can still debug it.

unionpivo 6y ago

Well then since, you have probably already familiar with Rust + asnync ... I mean it's even out of nightly by now, I guess it's time to start cracking on nim, zig and crystal. I mean JavaScript pff... that's so last decade. /s

joelbluminator 6y ago

OK Flash died but you could have easily made a nice career going deep on C. Us devs need to find the right balance between remaining relevant and going deep enough in the tech we choose.