DEV Community

scottshipp
scottshipp

Posted on

Are you a tech user or avoider?

Hi everyone. I've found that working as a software engineer all day long every day makes me less interested in trying out tech outside of work. I know some developers who go home and build things with Raspberry Pi's or Arduinos, or try out every new app that comes out and are early adopters of everything from Snap to Twitch.

But I'm very often uninterested in what's going on in tech because I feel like I had my fill during the day.

Where do you land?

Top comments (8)

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I keep up with interesting tech announcements from a distance. I'd probably fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, but I'm definitely not an early adopter... which is a fairly exhausting lifestyle 😄

I try not to adopt first-generation anything because it typically requires more buy in and energy. I'm happy to adopt useful tech somewhere a little later in the curve.

Collapse
 
nombrekeff profile image
Keff

Im the same way

Collapse
 
jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard

I think I am a better programmer when I spend time on my other area of interests outside of tech.

Reading, dancing, playing music, learning languages, ...

Collapse
 
ghost profile image
Ghost

I like to understand, design and create stuff. I guess I'm interested in tech that helps with that, I dislike smartphones (mine is an old Android without Google tools and just an app to play music), I don't like "social network sites", dev.to is the closer I get to it. Got an invitation to FB when it was very early and droped it as fast; never got into Twitter, Instagram, or alike.

So people tend to brand me as non-techy, but I love to play with Arduinos, learn new dev tech, I've done a lot with SBCs (Rasperry Pi, Beaglebone, CubieBoards and Bannana Pi), mostly for fun and personal projects, I like to tweak my OS and I use Gentoo just for fun.

I think I'm a tech-user only if the tech in question helps me build something.

Collapse
 
jvarness profile image
Jake Varness

Definitely a user. I like messing around with Arduino/Adafruit microcontrollers if I have time.

I definitely feel less attached to my phone in my free time, but I still try to code casually to learn new things.

Collapse
 
smuschel profile image
smuschel

For me, it seems to depend on my daily workload. The last few years, I had a lot to do in my day job, so my interest in tech dwindled until there was nothing left. I switched jobs last year and my current position leaves me enough time and energy for trying out things. I'll see how long this lasts...

Collapse
 
sk4ri profile image
Simon Károly

I like to know all about the new techs, and even apply to beta tests. However, my brother who is also a developer uses a 6 years old Sony-Ericsson smartphone and doesn't care about this stuff. Both of us get along just fine.

So I don't think that's something that determines if you are a good or bad software engineer.

Collapse
 
juniorrubyist profile image
Joseph Geis

I’m one of those who want everything tech and the latest everything, which has landed me in lots of weird bugs (like the font list bug in AppKit on the Catalina beta last summer)