https://programmingzen.com/im-supposed-to-know/
Great post for developers who are struggling with unrealistic expectations of what they should know and what they shouldn't. Thirty-forty years ago, it was possible to know a lot about a certain environment - that environment was MS-DOS (for non Mac/UNIX systems). . There was pretty much only a handful of ways to get things going.
Enter networking. That added a new wrinkle to how systems worked. Networks back then were finicky. One of my first jobs was working on a 3COM + LAN and it then migrated to LAN Manager.
Enter Windows or the graphical user interface. The best depiction of the complexity Windows (OS/2, Windows NT, etc) introduced that I recall was by Charles Petzold (if memory serves) at a local user group meeting. He invited a bunch of people on the stage and then acted as the Windows "Colonel", a nice play on kernel. Each person had a role but to complete their job they always had to pass things back to him, as he was the one in charge. After a few minutes, it was clear to everyone how complicated this was getting. It also showed how important it was for developers to understand the various moving parts. And this was thirty years ago.
Fast forward to today. There are so many different technologies and ways to accomplish things that it is literally impossible for someone to "know" it all. Network communication, security and accessibility are all areas that are considered core knowledge. Things are also changing at breakneck speed even for established companies. We can't all be startups. You may be working in an organization that is moving from Windows 2016 to Windows 2022 or worse, from SQL Server 2008 to 2012 and the hopes of moving to even just 2016 recently.
Certainly, AI tools give developers a good starting point, provided they give the right information, a task that isn't quite being met with 100% accuracy. With the speed that things are changing today, there will always be gaps in knowledge, even for experienced developers. React, Angular, Vue are only some of the frameworks today. Bootstrap is considered older technology, despite being in a lot of places. Webpack is being replaced in a number of environments with Vite. There may be some overlap but it's difficult to know everything. Blockchain technology was a huge opportunity a few years back. There are likely still opportunities for Fortran and COBOL developers. One of my clients still has a VB 6 application running mission critical systems. It still needs to be supported. But developers also like to work with new technologies, even if it's to find a way to bridge the gap between old and new systems.
As a developer, embrace the fact that you won't and can't know everything. Your real knowledge and value comes from how you can leverage your experience with learning about new technologies and how successfully you can turn that into working solutions.
Great post for developers who are struggling with unrealistic expectations of what they should know and what they shouldn't. Thirty-forty years ago, it was possible to know a lot about a certain environment - that environment was MS-DOS (for non Mac/UNIX systems). . There was pretty much only a handful of ways to get things going.
Enter networking. That added a new wrinkle to how systems worked. Networks back then were finicky. One of my first jobs was working on a 3COM + LAN and it then migrated to LAN Manager.
Enter Windows or the graphical user interface. The best depiction of the complexity Windows (OS/2, Windows NT, etc) introduced that I recall was by Charles Petzold (if memory serves) at a local user group meeting. He invited a bunch of people on the stage and then acted as the Windows "Colonel", a nice play on kernel. Each person had a role but to complete their job they always had to pass things back to him, as he was the one in charge. After a few minutes, it was clear to everyone how complicated this was getting. It also showed how important it was for developers to understand the various moving parts. And this was thirty years ago.
Fast forward to today. There are so many different technologies and ways to accomplish things that it is literally impossible for someone to "know" it all. Network communication, security and accessibility are all areas that are considered core knowledge. Things are also changing at breakneck speed even for established companies. We can't all be startups. You may be working in an organization that is moving from Windows 2016 to Windows 2022 or worse, from SQL Server 2008 to 2012 and the hopes of moving to even just 2016 recently.
Certainly, AI tools give developers a good starting point, provided they give the right information, a task that isn't quite being met with 100% accuracy. With the speed that things are changing today, there will always be gaps in knowledge, even for experienced developers. React, Angular, Vue are only some of the frameworks today. Bootstrap is considered older technology, despite being in a lot of places. Webpack is being replaced in a number of environments with Vite. There may be some overlap but it's difficult to know everything. Blockchain technology was a huge opportunity a few years back. There are likely still opportunities for Fortran and COBOL developers. One of my clients still has a VB 6 application running mission critical systems. It still needs to be supported. But developers also like to work with new technologies, even if it's to find a way to bridge the gap between old and new systems.
As a developer, embrace the fact that you won't and can't know everything. Your real knowledge and value comes from how you can leverage your experience with learning about new technologies and how successfully you can turn that into working solutions.
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