I've been writing a lot recently about how people don't need to know everything, and how it's impossible to know everything. It's something I 100% stand by, and there are so many things that I don't know a lot about. So I wanted to do something different and open up the discussion about things that we aren't interested in learning.
I'll start:
VIM - I know people absolutely love VIM, but I'm super happy with my text editor set up, and don't really feel a need to overcome the VIM learning curve. Part of me does sometimes think about it, but at least for now, I'm good.
DevOps - Fun fact, my title for the first year or so of my software engineering career was "DevOps engineer" -- I didn't really do DevOps, but I can sort of navigate my way around setting up a server, and I have set up a Kubernetes cluster. That being said, the output isn't that tangible to me, and it's not something I'm super interested in diving too much deeper into that world.
Advanced math - I took Calculus in high school, and took a couple of stats classes in college, but that's really the end of my math education. I'm not super interested in diving too much further into that world, and, to be honest, I forget a lot of the stuff I have learned in the past.
Lower level programming - the more tedious process in order to build useful things in lower level languages doesn't really interest me.
Hardware - I'm not super into hardware, I like my pre-built Mac's and the world of building computers just doesn't draw me in.
There are a milion and one things I would love to learn, but I can't learn everything.
What tools or technologies are you not interested in learning?
Top comments (103)
The modern frontend toolchain is where I'm tapping out on the "full-stack" idea. I can do everything I need to do with server-rendered templating languages; if I'm working on something that requires getting serious about understanding React or Vue or Webpack, I'm going to be working with someone who knows React or Vue or Webpack. I can work out what's going on in there well enough to fix problems and add minor features, but I'm profoundly disinterested in digging deeper.
Same here. It feels like a waste of time learning anything as before a year has passed almost everything is irrelevant again. It is just to too much effort to keep track of everything that's going on there, besides keep track of everything in the back end.
I used to consider myself a full stack developer. But with the modern front end stack I think everyone who claims they are full stack are liers.
I've done the whole frontend toolchain thing. Webpack manually, webpack with code generators, vue, this tool, that tool. I hope I'll stay away for a while :D
I seriously like Babel though. It started as a way to use modern javascript in lacking browsers but it's becoming more and more a way to experiment with features before they are standardized
I suggest digging deeper, you never know when a job comes along that if you can do that you'll get it because you can do it and others can't. Not all systems are new systems, the backbone of most of the internet is running on stuff from before most of us were born.
Being able to maintain and rework legacy systems is pretty lucrative and generally a requirement as your career progresses, trust me.
Machine Learning. I see it thrown around everywhere as the new thing to do, and I just can't build up the energy to dig into the complexities (both with the science behind it and the massive amount of different libraries available).
VIM and DevOps are actually on my current list haha, although that's also on the advice of my current manager. My own list includes:
I want to include calculus as well, but my manga book on Calculus always pulls me back in.
Oh cool! I have the book on databases from this series
Same here! Well I actually bought them all at once because...well just because :P
Here are mine:
In fact, I just care about PHP.
@biros you read my mind.
'cept replace PHP w/ Dev(Sec/Git/Chat)Ops as I've done PHP for 10+ yrs professionally.
My last affirmation was a gratuitous provocation. Although I don't care about items from the list above, I strongly care about Go, docker, gitlab, swagger, cloud deployment, ELK, prometheus and many others.
I'm almost done with PH after HTML, CSS and JavaScript. JavaScript made it all smooth for me. Well, I'm on learning everything, it's adventure for me.
Great question!
the list could be endless if I start adding things like SAP :D
These are the things that pop in my mind right now:
blockchain: I'm honestly totally bored to death everytime I hear someone mention "blockchain". It's not rational, I just tune out. Probably my subconscious is trying to protect me from the hype
kubernetes: super useful, just not particularly interested. More interested in what comes next, I need one more level of abstraction
AR/VR: reality is way more interesting for now :D
internet of things: except real sensors in urban environments... why are we doing this to us?
hardware: I don't remember the last time that I built a computer. Probably in high school. I keep a distant eye on what's going on in storage and memory advancements though.
AI/ML: turn down the hype. Learning something about ML is quite useful though
PHP/Wordpress/Drupal: I know, I know. I shouldn't judge a book by its cover
This is my list! Like everything I came here to say you've already covered!
Your mention of Kubernetes and comment "More interested in what comes next, I need one more level of abstraction" is spot on! 👌
hhaha thanks Paul! I hope to skip the k8s frenzy right to serverless (which might be very well orchestrated by a kubernetes cluster underneath, who knows :D)
"...the list could be endless if I start adding things like SAP :D..." Truth.
I feel you.
am also not interested in blockchain technologies
CSS. Which is sad, because it's ubiquitous. I've scratched the surface, but I'm both bad at and uninterested in creating pretty layouts and designs, I'm more interested in the machinery. I'd be happy with a motherfuckingwebsite.com/ world but alas.
This shocks me, but moreso I respect you for writing since I know there's likely MANY other devs here who'd say the same :P
Takes all kinds, right? I'm rather glad there's people on both sides of this one around.
aw! I'm sad you don't want VIM in your life :) I find it quite useful in my case.
As a student in comp engineering, saying I don't want to learn math is impossible. There is much math, but I am glad I went from total dumbo to pretty decent.
For me, I don't want to learn anything about blockchain. To me, it's just a buzzword whose trend will fade eventually.
Great topic!
And very timely with the end of year period of reflection coming.
Here’s my list of what I’d like to and not like to be doing (from a Data Analysts point of view)
Things I’m interested in:
Things I’m not interested in:
Excellent list of likes & dislikes, Helen. I'd concur with a whole lot of points especially DevOps, documentation, AWS & more importantly helping people solve a problem.
Dislikes would be math related stuff like the whole space-time complexities (Yeah I know a lot of people would disagree with me but I believe it looks good only in those hardbound books, haha) along with the whole paradigm of preparing and giving a live whiteboard interview and/or some kind of an online challenge that evaluates one's programming skills
Good devs are usually concerned about what impact their code has on the product and the end-users rather than scoring high on those tests because it's clear a solution can be found in conjunction with Google/StackOverflow/Official Docs anyway.
Math isn’t my strong suit. It’s never spun my wheels and I’m not very good at it. I sit next to a group of data scientists who are always whiteboarding complex looking equations, while I’m more concerned about keeping the database clean, organised and not broken for when they start using it. I thought data science could be a good next move, but the advanced math and statistics has scared me off.
I agree with you on coding just to get high scores on tests too!
I want to solve problems and make something better not just do it for the sake of doing it :)
Even I've never been a whiz at math either. I also believe the whiteboard challenge in a interview is never a true indicator of one's coding skills since the human brain can remember only so many things and there's no assurance that someone who aces those will necessarily be a good fit at that particular organization.
I should use the /s more often. I sincerely don't give a damn about what people use :)
For me, the list is as follows:
.NETstuff. I have heard a lot of good things about C# and F# and MS even recently made it possible to run them on Linux using.net Core. The main reason is that the eco-system is not as comprehensive as the JVM one and C# is quite similar to Java.