"should you focus on your company's tech stack or learn the latest hotness?" was an audience question at a fireside chat about Senior Mindset last night.
Great question. Common concern. What if I get stuck in a technology that isn't hot?? Or worse, burn out re-learning every new thing 😱
Ideally you can skate where the puck is going. Be proficient at the tools you're using now and get shit done. Keep an eye out for the future and look for opportunities that nudge you there.
Have a vision for where you're going. That helps. What problems do you like solving? What tools do you need? Don't learn shit you won't use.
But here's a secret nobody told you:
Specific tools don't matter. The underlying problems are all the same.
A secret nobody told you:
— Senior Engineer Mindset (@SeniorMindset) September 20, 2022
Spend less time on learning specific tools. The underlying problems are always the same. pic.twitter.com/z56W2ZkINd
The web is nothing special, neither is the blockchain stuff. Even the fancy-pants AI and machine learning algorithms need a product built around their innovative core.
It's a thin or fat client talking to a fat or thin data source over a network. "We" have been building systems like that since the 1950's.
Hell, modern cars are a client talking to servers over a network (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Learn these skills, they never go out of fashion and in the world of framework warriors they're surprisingly rare:
- data modeling
- domain modeling
- system design
- managing complexity
- syncing state
- teamwork
Cheers,
~Swizec
PS: once you know the principles, the details are in the docs
Continue reading about Reader question: Should you learn the latest hotness?
Semantically similar articles hand-picked by GPT-4
- What you can expect from the Senior Mindset Retreat
- How to take ownership and make progress without explicit direction
- What to do when bugs are whack-a-mole
- Quick tip for system design interviews
- The backend iceberg
Become a *true* Senior Engineer
Get promoted, earn a bigger salary, work for top companies
Getting that senior title is easy. Just stick around. Being a true senior takes a new way of thinking. Do you have it?
The Senior Minset email crash course
Get a free chapter from the Senior Engineer Mindset book and a sample audiobook chapter, followed by a Senior Mindset 101 email course.
You'll get insights to apply at your work right away.
Have a burning question that you think I can answer? Hit me up on twitter and I'll do my best.
Who am I and who do I help? I'm Swizec Teller and I turn coders into engineers with "Raw and honest from the heart!" writing. No bullshit. Real insights into the career and skills of a modern software engineer.
Want to become a true senior engineer? Take ownership, have autonomy, and be a force multiplier on your team. The Senior Engineer Mindset ebook can help 👉 swizec.com/senior-mindset. These are the shifts in mindset that unlocked my career.
Curious about Serverless and the modern backend? Check out Serverless Handbook, for frontend engineers 👉 ServerlessHandbook.dev
Want to Stop copy pasting D3 examples and create data visualizations of your own? Learn how to build scalable dataviz React components your whole team can understand with React for Data Visualization
Want to get my best emails on JavaScript, React, Serverless, Fullstack Web, or Indie Hacking? Check out swizec.com/collections
Did someone amazing share this letter with you? Wonderful! You can sign up for my weekly letters for software engineers on their path to greatness, here: swizec.com/blog
Want to brush up on your modern JavaScript syntax? Check out my interactive cheatsheet: es6cheatsheet.com
By the way, just in case no one has told you it yet today: I love and appreciate you for who you are ❤️