As a software engineer I have adapted to the world turning upside down every couple of years and having to learn new concepts and technologies. However, I have been noticing other fields struggling to adapt as things change in a faster scale.
For example, some researchers have pointed out that the number of papers about ADHD increases exponentially every year. However, most mental health professionals, at least in my area, seem to be severily outdated, often using information that has been debunked within the last 10-20 years.
So, I was wondering if other fields are affected and how they are adapting?
Edit: Bonus question, assuming a 40hr week (a luxury for most), how much time out those 40hrs would you need to spend on education?
Well, I used to have an area of expertise… Then we adopted a kid.
Kids are hard. Kids who had years of neglect and trauma… can be a lot harder. I love him very much, but he takes up so much of my time and energy, I just don’t have any time for my own stuff any more.
Also, my field (IT) has gotten weird as computers have gotten weird. Nobody uses computers any more, they use “devices”. And these devices all suck. They’re hard (or impossible) to actually back up, you can’t deploy software to them in an organized way, they’re a security nightmare, and the interface just isn’t as easy to use as a freaking mouse and keyboard.
And if you want to talk about actual computers, those suck more every year too. Oh the hardware is improving by the day, but the software hasn’t been cooperative in years. Always online operating systems, fake settings menus to keep the user away from the real settings menus… Actually, nevermind, I don’t even want to talk about OSs, they make me too angry.
And then there’s all the software packages that would rather be services than what they actually are, a product. Poor Adobe, just not filthy rich enough yet…
Anyway, it gets harder to do IT as computers get shittier, and I am falling behind, because I hate it.
As kids get older they consistently show that parents, even enthusiastic adoptive parents, are falling behind. Enjoy your kid while they are young and they will enjoy you when they are older. Let the OSs and computers fall behind, trying to keep up with the kid is far more important.
Yeah, I’m doing DevOps but only DevOps. Only builds. Only Jenkins. At least I do best practices for Java, JavaScript and Python and done interesting AppSec stuff but they all do the same thing.
When I first started here, I was getting into some interesting stuff with AWS, but then they hired another me and we over-specialized
If possible, do like I do: steer away from the shitty parts of IT. Sure, I’m falling behind, but only in regards to tech I do not want to deal with.
The result: Niche skill set revolving around stuff I like doing, and I’m damn good at it. Pays pretty well too.
Capitalism and the corporate environment have really sapped my enthusiasm for software development.
Corporate development makes me feel like SpongeBob in that one beach episode.
I often feel like I’m doing the devil’s bidding, only to be paid so I don’t starve, and then they’ll throw me to the wayside when I’m no longer “useful”. Makes me not want to learn, why should I? It doesn’t give me job security, or better hire ability.
I felt like that until I started working for a couple of non-profits and then later government. My job actually makes people have a better time in life. Its kinda nice nowadays.
We have GOT to find a new word for us besides “Lemmings”…
Lemmons
No, that would require a pre-requisite of having an area of expertise:)
Don’t work in a company where they only use cutting-edge shit, it’s usually a sign of a scam to pump up a company to impress dumb money investors and get a golden exit for the owners.
I mean, it’s all relative. For example, in 2024 there’s still places where basic software practices like git and ci/cd are “cutting edge”. I’m not saying those are usually the best places to work, but there are places out there still working on stuff like cloud migrations where the work culture is chill you can be pretty well valued for having some basic knowledge about best practices.
Not really, but that’s largely because what I consider to be my area of expertise is extremely niche. I am a Lead Product Manager for an internal software. I started out as an IT business analyst for the software literally as soon as it started development out of the proof-of-concept phase. Two years in, I got promoted to Product Manager. Five more years and I’ve had 2 more promotions, growing to the Lead role I have now.
There is only one person at my company whose knowledge of the application rivals my own, and he started out in QA at the same time, then backfilled my BA role when I moved to Product. I know that application inside and out; its upstream dependencies, its users, its place in our business and our technical architecture, etc. And that’s because I’ve had a hand in building it since the beginning.
People I’ve never even met think of my name as synonymous with the software. I am literally the expert on it. My tool touches almost every part of our business and ultimately makes the day-to-day jobs of over 60k people easier. I constantly learn from working on it, and in seven years it has never been boring.
However, I am no longer the only PM for it. I manage a team of 3, and I empower them to run as autonomously as possible. Every year I am less of an expert because it has outgrown what one person can maintain in their head. I use my knowledge to build up my team, and they are becoming powerhouses in their own right. I am proud when I don’t know something in my app, because it means one of my staff owned that feature so wholly that I didn’t need to be closely involved.
Now, what of this knowledge is applicable to a broader industry? I honestly don’t know, and that sometimes freaks me out a bit. I think of Product Management as my vocation, and yet I’ve only ever done it on one team, one product. I take a course every couple years, but otherwise am not super up on generic Product Management skills/trends. However, multiple people who have broader backgrounds working with Product Managers than I do have called me the best PM they’ve ever worked with, so presumably I’ve gotten something right.
Not really an answer to the question as you intended it, I’m sure. But I do think about my role and my expertise in it a lot. And I really love it.
You sound like a truly awesome PM. I hope I get to work with someone like you one day.
Aww, thank you! Having a great team all around (PMs, devs, designers) is a big part of what makes it so great and so fun. I am lucky to have all of them. I also hope you get to work with an awesome PM. The PM can really make work hell for developers if they’re bad.
I thought of myself as a shield for my developers until I learned the industry term is “shit umbrella.” And yup, that’s exactly what I try to be for them! Pass through all the good things and reframe the crap I hear into something we can improve.
