Keeping up with the Codeashians

Development is one of the fastest moving industries in the world.

This is mostly a good thing. It means that the industry as a whole is constantly learning, evolving and improving. New tools, libraries, frameworks and programming languages are constantly popping up to help us better solve modern problems.

There's just one minor issue: It puts a lot of stress on developers to constantly learn new tech.

Example: I've been using VueJS for about 5 years at this point, and have just started looking into the newest version, Vue 3. And while I'm excited to learn it and make use of the cool new features, a part of me still feels like "ugh, do I really have to relearn a tool that's been working for me for 5 years?"

Code is already difficult in and of itself. And it doesn't get easier when you have to pick up new knowledge and tools all the time. This is where lots of developers get burned out - because they feel obligated to keep up with the fast-moving ecosystem

So, what can you do about it? How do you keep your skills sharp while avoiding burnout? I've got a few ideas:

  1. Realize that you can never know everything. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with sticking to the tools you already know and love if they get the job done.
  2. Wait before jumping on the hottest new thing. When a big update or new tool comes out, give it some time to mature before you dive in. That will already filter out the tools that don't make it, and you'll avoid the headaches of being a first-mover.
  3. Stay focused on the fundamentals. For front-end developers, having a solid understanding of HTML, CSS and JavaScript means we can easily adjust to any new front-end tech that comes along. Since it's all, at the end of the day, built on these technologies anyway.

Keeping up with the industry is a tricky balance to be sure. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with playing around with new tools if you enjoy it.

Just stay mindful of when you're learning something for fun and to test it out - or when you have to learn something new. You probably don't need to do the latter as often as you'd think.

PS: I absolutely stole the "Keeping up with the Codeashians" phrase from one of my favourite web development podcasts, syntax.fm. They did an episode on this exact topic some time ago; check that out here if you're interested.

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