This is an interesting perspective. I agree that junior devs sometimes focus on things that senior devs have rightfully learned to ignore. "Boring" tech is boring for a reason - it's an effective way to solve a problem. SQL and jQuery are great examples of tech that gets bashed for being boring, but you can still solve problems very effectively with them. They're reliable and understandable tools.
I'm not sure Joel was necessarily criticizing all the higher levels of abstractions and tools that come out, though - I think he was pointing out that you'll never get anything done if you spend all your time running down every hot, new tech solution that comes out. Just my take, though, and it is an excellent article. :-)
To get back to the main subject, the seniors I've known that I felt truly deserved their title have had superior debugging skills, superior ability to read through, understand, and reason about other people's code, a good sense for what makes maintainable code, a greater technical skill set (knowledge of the language/ecosystem, how to solve its problems) and the ability to teach those skills to others. Wouldn't you say that these skills are really part of being a senior dev too?
This is an interesting perspective. I agree that junior devs sometimes focus on things that senior devs have rightfully learned to ignore. "Boring" tech is boring for a reason - it's an effective way to solve a problem. SQL and jQuery are great examples of tech that gets bashed for being boring, but you can still solve problems very effectively with them. They're reliable and understandable tools.
I'm not sure Joel was necessarily criticizing all the higher levels of abstractions and tools that come out, though - I think he was pointing out that you'll never get anything done if you spend all your time running down every hot, new tech solution that comes out. Just my take, though, and it is an excellent article. :-)
To get back to the main subject, the seniors I've known that I felt truly deserved their title have had superior debugging skills, superior ability to read through, understand, and reason about other people's code, a good sense for what makes maintainable code, a greater technical skill set (knowledge of the language/ecosystem, how to solve its problems) and the ability to teach those skills to others. Wouldn't you say that these skills are really part of being a senior dev too?
Point well made, though. Always follow the money!
Of course. Some new tech is interesting.
Yes, and of course I am exaggerating - The point still stands ... ^_^