The industry isn't moving that fast
Hey – have ya ever had this thought?
“I’m so tired of needing to download 15 different tools, transpilers, package manages, libraries that all become obsolete in a year, just to feel like i’m keeping up with the cool kids.
I feel so old, but I miss when you could just pop in a CD, install Visual Studio, and BAM you had everything you needed to get real work done.
I’m sick of trying to play catch up with the latest stack of the week.” -_a reddit user_
Yeah, I get it, I get it, the industry changes soooo fast, don’t wanna be left behind!
You’ll be out on your ass in no time!
Sorry, but that is SO WRONG and here is why
Your role as a developer is essentially the same as it has been for 50+ years.
Being a developer is simply being someone who builds and improves processes (and I don’t mean the kind that you fork()).
In some way or another, you’re automating the movement of information. It doesn’t matter how, as long as it’s done with software.
That’s it.
That makes you a developer.
You aren’t going to be left behind on that aspect.
The changes in tooling are mostly refinements in convenience.
With the fundamentals in your back pocket, you can take a couple weeks to pick up the basics of any new tool or framework.
New JavaScript libraries are blasting out the spasmatic asshole of the web development community left and right, but if you look at them up close, they are nothing more than convenience improvements and “opinionated elegance”.
You don’t need to keep up with them.
There’s no need to feel inadequate in a latest-stack rat race thinking you’ll be left behind.
People claiming otherwise are just revealing their imposter syndrome.
In the real world, changing technology stacks usually not worth it.
Shout out to all those who still maintain or update a VB6 or WebForms app (there are A LOT).
It’s fun to learn and play with new tools, and if you get to work for a company that uses them, all the power to you, but a very large percentage of the software world is about building on top of battle-tested (read old) systems where spending time with new tools wouldn’t provide the business value to be worth it.
Spend your time mastering your current toolset (let me guess, you’ve barely had to use the advanced features, right?) and touch the new toys when you have a true need to use them. It won’t take that long to catch up if the time comes.