Reader question: Should you learn the latest hotness?

"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.

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