Comment by adriand
3 years ago
I feel like the need to continuously learn new things is a feature of the profession, not a bug. It is certainly a difficult challenge, but I've always felt that the most important trait in a software developer is an eagerness to learn new things.
I think the overall premise of the article makes sense, but where I differ from the writer is in how I view the need for constant learning and self-development. The author writes,
> Like a fast, expensive car that quickly loses value as it's driven around town, the skills and human capital of software engineers fall apart without constant, expensive maintenance.
What the author is talking about, however, is not a material object with transient importance to one's life (i.e. a vehicle), it is your mind. Learning new things doesn't just mean you retain your relevance as a software developer, it also helps stave off cognitive decline. It keeps you sharp, relevant, mentally agile. That may not be the case in every job, but the field as a whole certainly has that attribute.
> the opportunity cost of working in a rapidly-changing field is highest for the best learners
It's not that learning is an unattractive aspect (I agree, it's a great feature!). Instead it's that it levels the playing field between those entering the profession and those that have been in it for many years. Yes, you still have "experience" as an advantage, but you can't say you've worked with LATEST_TECH for many more years than someone coming out of college.
Contrast that with other professions, like law, or medicine. Where it's not just "experience" working in your favor. But actual knowledge of the existing laws and medical practices.
That's an excellent point which mirrors my experience as well. My parents are both recently retired civil engineers one which was working for the government/city, the other in a private company. Both very valued in their professional circles, and even outside just because of their reputations.
I've never seen them at home reading a law, bylaw or a "teach yourself how to design a bridge in 30 days". Whenever something changed in their profession (very rarely) be it law or similar they went to seminars about it. Some of the time they (or their "guild") were even consulted so that stuff ended in the law itself. Something really new in the industry (say some software tool or whatever), the company paid for the trip, and the training. The older they were, the more compounding experience and knowledge they had. With each year they were worth more to their respective companies.
Contrast this to my current company (previous were even worse), where my boss proclaimed that all new infrastructure is going to be in Terraform (I had no problem with that, but zero experience), hired a new guy almost straight out of school with 1.5 years of TF experience (and absolutely nothing else from what I've found out later) with much better pay than the rest of the team. Oh, and he said he'll expense us any TF book we want to buy. So here I am, on my 2 week "long" vacation reading a fat book about some technology X which we'll be abandoned in couple of years time.
> Contrast that with other professions, like law, or medicine. Where it's not just "experience" working in your favor. But actual knowledge of the existing laws and medical practices.
In my experience knowledge decreases very fast if you work in a programming job (exception: if you use an insane amount of your free time to avoid this decrease).
> I feel like the need to continuously learn new things is a feature of the profession, not a bug.
The bug is in our brains. After two decades, you are not the fast learner you were, especially after you manage to fill your clothes with keys traded for responsibilities.
Realizing that is a source of mid-life crisis. Trust me, I've been there.
Also: you're learning the same thing you already learned several times before, except slightly different this time. Things are no longer as exciting as when you learned it the first time, and especially if $new_thing isn't a fundamental improvement over $old_thing, or even worse (in your view, whether that view is correct is another matter) it just becomes a slog.
I found that excitement/motivation is pretty important in actually learning new things. I'm close to 40 now and don't find it's harder to pick up new things when I'm motivated. If anything, I find it easier as I have a broader background knowledge and spend my time more effectively – I didn't believe my teachers when they told me that taking notes helps you remember stuff but they were right and I was a stubborn idiot. All of that offsets the undoubtedly decreased ability of my brain compared to when I was 21. It's just that I've done a lot of things before and find it hard to motivate myself for "$new_thing that's fundamentally just like $old_thing building $new_app that's not really any different from $old_app".