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I disagree with the Jack of all trades, master of none cliché. You can effectively be a master of multiple fields because the true applicable depth of so many o

I disagree with the Jack of all trades, master of none cliché. You can effectively be a master of multiple fields because the true applicable depth of so many of them are completely shallow. There are entire niches in software development that you can dismiss wholesale. Virtually everything in the web that isn't the web standards themselves or from the most popular libraries isn't worth learning because it's just regurgitation. If you know CSS as an applicable professional level, any CSS framework you see is irrelevant. You can pick it up. Etc.

alexwhb 3y ago
I generally agree with this. And so much of modern dev… especially in the app/web dev space is just pattern recognition and hooking up different systems to each other. That’s not to discount its difficulty… but you can be good at several disciplines. I actually think being a generalist (to some degree) can actually be helpful, because it allows you to think in multiple modalities, where as someone who specializes in something is less likely to be able to break out of their thought patterns.
- Izkata 3y ago
  > I actually think being a generalist (to some degree) can actually be helpful, because it allows you to think in multiple modalities, where as someone who specializes in something is less likely to be able to break out of their thought patterns. GP mentioned the two-part "jack of all trades", but there's a relatively modern third part to it that expresses this sentiment: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one"
  - alexwhb 3y ago
    > but oftentimes better than a master of one I like that. I think that's an accurate statement.
cdelsolar 3y ago
Yep I also disagree. I would say I have a mastery of a lot of backend programming, architecture/infra deployment, microcontroller programming, assembly, React + Redux, and at least 3 or 4 other languages I’ve worked in through my career. I’ve had jobs doing data engineering - building and deploying machine learning models at scale, advanced computer vision stuff (before ML became the rage for it), building, designing, and deploying tiny sensors on wind tunnel models, etc etc. I have a couple of open source multiplayer projects with a few thousand MAU each. Now, the one thing I will never master or care to is CSS - the devil himself must have come up with this abomination.

alexwhb 3y ago

I generally agree with this. And so much of modern dev… especially in the app/web dev space is just pattern recognition and hooking up different systems to each other. That’s not to discount its difficulty… but you can be good at several disciplines. I actually think being a generalist (to some degree) can actually be helpful, because it allows you to think in multiple modalities, where as someone who specializes in something is less likely to be able to break out of their thought patterns.

Izkata 3y ago
> I actually think being a generalist (to some degree) can actually be helpful, because it allows you to think in multiple modalities, where as someone who specializes in something is less likely to be able to break out of their thought patterns. GP mentioned the two-part "jack of all trades", but there's a relatively modern third part to it that expresses this sentiment: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one"
- alexwhb 3y ago
  > but oftentimes better than a master of one I like that. I think that's an accurate statement.

cdelsolar 3y ago

Yep I also disagree. I would say I have a mastery of a lot of backend programming, architecture/infra deployment, microcontroller programming, assembly, React + Redux, and at least 3 or 4 other languages I’ve worked in through my career. I’ve had jobs doing data engineering - building and deploying machine learning models at scale, advanced computer vision stuff (before ML became the rage for it), building, designing, and deploying tiny sensors on wind tunnel models, etc etc. I have a couple of open source multiplayer projects with a few thousand MAU each. Now, the one thing I will never master or care to is CSS - the devil himself must have come up with this abomination.