(public).sospep.subjects ~ view article ~ SUMMARY-reflections-of-an-old-programmer

<h1 style="text-align: center;">Reflections of an "old" programmer</h1>
<h2>[WHAT]</h2>
<ol>
<li>] by Ben Northrop, @bennorthrop.com - Northrop explores his experience in the programming feild to other professions and how the knowledge he has learned needs to be continually discarded and replaced with the "new and innovative" tools of the day,</li>
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<h2>[WHY]</h2>
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<li>]&nbsp;</li>
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<h2>[WHERE]</h2>
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<li><strong>] READ THE FULL ARTICLE</strong></li>
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<li>]&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2016/reflections-of-an-old-programmer.php" target="_blank">http://www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2016/reflections-of-an-old-programmer.php</a></li>
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<h2>[WHEN]</h2>
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<li>] 2016-10-07</li>
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<h2>[EXAMPLE]</h2>
<p>I'm a programmer, a few months shy of his 40th birthday,&nbsp; I'm at a tech conference. It's a session on <a href="https://facebook.github.io/react-native/" target="_blank">React Native</a>, and the presenter is convincing us <span style="background-color: #ffff99;">why it's truly the "next big thing"</span> for mobile development. To me, it seems a bit like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaServer_Pages" target="_blank">JSPs</a> of 15 years ago, with all the logic in the presentation code, but I'm "old", so I assume<span style="background-color: #ffff99;"> I just don't "get it".</span></p>
<p>... the "name dropping" portion of the presentation, where he rattles off about a half a dozen supporting tools that I never knew existed, including something called <a href="https://github.com/futurice/pepperoni-app-kit" target="_blank">Pepperoni</a> (seriously). As someone who just recently got the hang of <a href="https://angularjs.org/" target="_blank">Angular</a>, it all makes me feel a little disheartened. "Here we go again", I think.</p>
<p><strong>I've taken seats on a number of <a href="http://www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2015/slaves-to-fashion.php">band wagons</a></strong>, and have generally enjoyed the rides. <strong> The buzz that comes with a new "disruption" in programming can be exciting</strong> - feeling apart of a community of technical innovaters, championing something that will make things a little easier, quicker, cleaner, better. It can be fun. But on this particular morning, <strong>at the cusp of 40, I have to admit I feel a little drained.</strong> I know this is part of the job - if I want to stay relevant (and well paid), I know that <strong>every so often I need to cast out some of the knowledge that I've so dutifully absorbed</strong>, and gear up up for the next journey. <strong>It's just how it is.</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;this regular ritural of my programming career doesn't seem to be a way of life for other professionals. The doctor at 40 doesn't seem to be worried about discovering that all his knowledge of the vascular system is about to evaporate in favor of some new organizing theory. The same goes for the lawyer, the plumber, the accountant, or the english teacher</p>
<p>&nbsp;, it's safe to say that for each of them, mid-way through their career, the knowledge they've accumulated is relatively stable, and has afforded them with some increased measure of respect and compensation. In programming though, <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/2617093/it-careers/it-careers-where-do-all-the-old-programmers-go.html" target="_blank">20 years of experience</a> does not seem to confer those same advantages.</p>
<p>Of course not all is so dismal in our profession - there are <strong>so many <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gretchen-rubin/balanced-life----why-is-c_b_904388.html" target="_blank">things to love</a> about being a programmer</strong> - but in terms of <strong>the never-ending struggle to "keep up", it is an interesting feature that seems more or less unique to our field.</strong> Am I right though? Is programming really different in this regard? And if it is, then why? And what does it mean for our career trajectory? I'd like to try to answer <em>all</em> of this (because, why not) in terms of two concepts.</p>
<p>&nbsp;The first is <strong>knowledge decay</strong>. Everything we know, not just about programming, has an expiration; a point at which it is no longer useful. I learned how to drive a car when <strong>I was 16, and for that most part, that knowledge still serves me well. This piece of knowledge could be said to have a long <a href="http://www.aacrao.org/resources/resources-detail-view/knowledge-decay--the-half-life-of-your-education">half-life</a>.</strong> For many professionals, their domain knowledge also has a relatively long half-life.</p>
<p>In programming, for good or bad, I'd assert that this is not exactly the case. Putting a (rather arbitrary) stake in the ground, I'd say that:&nbsp; <strong>Half of what a programmer knows will be useless in 10 years.</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp; the second concept, <strong>knowledge accumulation rate</strong> - the pace at which we add new things to our knowledge corpus. In every field, there is <strong>a certain threshold of knowledge that must be met in order to be "certified" (or at least hireable)</strong>, and the early portion of a career is typically dedicated to acquiring this knowledge. In programming, however, because of the fast decay of knowledge, it seems like we never really transcend the "student" period. We know we must <a href="https://tommcfarlin.com/always-be-learning/" target="_blank">always be learning</a>, and this makes <strong>the stages of our career a bit atypical.</strong></p>
<p class="indentableSubtle"><strong>STAGES</strong>&nbsp;of a [programming]&nbsp;career - &nbsp;the <strong>novice ..</strong></p>
<p class="indentableSubtle">&nbsp;the <strong>rising star</strong> stage. The investment we made in learning has paid off, and just about everything we know is still useful - i.e. none of our knowledge has noticeably decayed. With this reservoir full of relevant knowledge, we begin to earn the respect of clients, peers, and managers, and with this respect comes titles, salary, and opportunities. Though we don't necessarily see it at the time, this is also an important point of inflection. ...&nbsp;Essentially, both forces, knowledge decay and knowledge accumulation rate, begin to work against us.</p>
<p class="indentableSubtle"><strong>stable veteran</strong> - We are knowledgeable and productive, yes, but we also understand that we may actually know fewer (useful) things than we did at a prior point in our career. A non-trivial amount of our knowledge has decayed, and we may not have had the time to accumulate enough new knowledge to compensate.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="indentableSubtle"><strong>[ADVICE]</strong></p>
<p class="indentableSubtle">I try to <strong>invest most in knowledge that is durable</strong>. My energy is better spent accumulating knowledge that has a longer half-life - algorithms, application security, performance optimization, and architecture. Carving out niches in these areas, I hope, will better bullet-proof my career than learning the newest, flash-in-the-pan Javascript library.</p>
<h2>[HOW-TO]</h2>
<ol>
<li>]</li>
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<h2>[REFERENCE]</h2>
<ol>
<li>] CREATE-article# # - reflections of an old programmer (this)</li>
<li>] SRC = HN, (415 ) <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12656426" target="_blank">comments</a> (262)</li>
</ol>
<div>
<h2>[RELATED]</h2>
<div><ol>
<li>] # 5347 -&nbsp;<a href="/view/article?id=5347" target="_blank">unemployable</a>&nbsp;- &nbsp;[collection] by Don Sagrott, founder @sospep.com - a collection of articles on the state of the employment market for older developers. "Ageism" and other issues facing older developers in today's technology industry.&nbsp;</li>
<li>* * *&nbsp;</li>
<li>] # # - how it feels to learn javascript in 2016&nbsp;</li>
<li>] # # - the 5 most important things you need to know about web development</li>
<li>] # # - state of javascript 2016</li>
</ol></div>
</div>
<h1 style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</h1>

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