Keeping Up With Changing Technology Trends as a Software Developer
Trends in the technological world are perhaps the most volatile. What we consider new technologies today might as well become obsolete before we even master the basics. How can one keep up?
As software developers, we are often expected to be T-Shaped, not only knowing what we know deeply but also knowing a lot more about other areas as well — be it emergent stuff or archives. This can end up pressuring one to keep jumping from one stack to another literally becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none.
Well, instead of spreading oneself thin trying to master everything and jumping on every new shiny thing, I find mastering that particular area or technology we identify with most or often use at work helps. Once you master one language- say Javascript, it becomes a lot easier to understand and pick up on others as well as the need arises since the principles behind every programming language are often similar.
This doesn’t rule out the need and importance of keeping up with trends and accumulating knowledge to refine our skills- as it is simply the nature of our field — however, finding one’s niche and becoming good at it helps in mastering other areas as well. What I am simply saying is, don’t beat yourself so much over these emerging technologies. At the end of the day, all these are simply tools used to solve problems, learn problem-solving and using the tool then becomes a lot easier.
So yeah, master your stuff, stay passionate, keep growing, enjoy the journey, and the rest will take care of itself 😉
