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Ali Spittel
Ali Spittel

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What are you not interested in learning?

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 (111)

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dmfay profile image
Dian Fay • Edited

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.

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elmuerte profile image
Michiel Hendriks • Edited

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.

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

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

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psycry profile image
PsyCry

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.

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ballpointcarrot profile image
Christopher Kruse

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).

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maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

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:

  • Virtual Reality
  • Additional backend langauges other than Ruby (part of my current job)
  • Arduino or Raspberry Pi

I want to include calculus as well, but my manga book on Calculus always pulls me back in.

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missingno15 profile image
Kenneth Uy

Oh cool! I have the book on databases from this series

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maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

Same here! Well I actually bought them all at once because...well just because :P

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biros profile image
Boris Jamot ✊ / • Edited

Here are mine:

  • Frontend (too hyped)
  • Blockchain (too volatile)
  • Frameworks (too much)
  • Functional programming (too useless)
  • Machine learning, deep learning, AI (too complex)
  • VR (too noisy)
  • Hardware (too hard)

In fact, I just care about PHP.

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cyprian_dev profile image
Cyprian

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.

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy

@biros you read my mind.

'cept replace PHP w/ Dev(Sec/Git/Chat)Ops as I've done PHP for 10+ yrs professionally.

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biros profile image
Boris Jamot ✊ /

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.

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

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

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paulswail profile image
Paul Swail

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! 👌

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

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)

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy

"...the list could be endless if I start adding things like SAP :D..." Truth.

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shiling profile image
Shi Ling

I feel you.

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muiruripyrax profile image
Pyrax_Muiruri

am also not interested in blockchain technologies

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deciduously profile image
Ben Lovy • Edited

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.

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maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

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

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deciduously profile image
Ben Lovy

Takes all kinds, right? I'm rather glad there's people on both sides of this one around.

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j_mplourde profile image
Jean-Michel Plourde

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.

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tux0r profile image
tux0r

I'm sad you don't want VIM in your life :)

That's the problem with religions ... :-)

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j_mplourde profile image
Jean-Michel Plourde

Vim is clearly superior, let met demonstrate you !!!

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j_mplourde profile image
Jean-Michel Plourde

I should use the /s more often. I sincerely don't give a damn about what people use :)

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tux0r profile image
tux0r

Frameworks. ;-)

Also, I probably won't ever learn one of those Mac-centric languages. Objective-C confuses me with its brackets and stars and NS-something names and I fail to see a use case for Swift that does not have half-eaten fruit on it.

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

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:

  • Building in AWS
  • Python
  • ETL
  • Building Data models in Wherescape
  • Using github properly, not just my own repos
  • Devops
  • Writing good documentation
  • Helping people

Things I’m not interested in:

  • Building reports that get ignored
  • AI/machine learning/VR/blockchain/hype
  • Front end web dev
  • Google analytics and using data to ‘sell more stuff’
  • Anything with maths
  • Product mgmt/ownership
  • Project mgmt
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vinayhegde1990 profile image
Vinay Hegde • Edited

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.

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

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.

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

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 :)

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vinayhegde1990 profile image
Vinay Hegde

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.

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rrampage profile image
Raunak Ramakrishnan

For me, the list is as follows:

  1. .NET stuff. 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.
  2. Advanced front-end like JS frameworks, SASS, Flexbox, etc. I am mostly a back-end guy and know basic JS, HTML and CSS to create functional UIs. Also, the frameworks seemed to change very quickly in popularity till React came along. That said, I enjoy using D3 for interactive visualizations and creating SVGs.
  3. Blockchain-related stuff. It is too hype-filled atm and seems like a solution in search of a problem.
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dangolant profile image
Daniel Golant

Oh spit, 🚨Good Question Alert 🚨!

For me it’s probably “another interpreted language” and “React”.

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cjbrooks12 profile image
Casey Brooks

I'm right there with you on React. Just seems to have a way to high of a learning curve for the kind of front-end work I do, and I'd much just stick with Vue.

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puritanic profile image
Darkø Tasevski

React doesn't have step learning curve at all, it's bassicaly just Javascript with JSX. On the other hand, Vue is much easier than React if you are coming from some kind of templating language.

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dangolant profile image
Daniel Golant

I’ve noticed that learning curves aren’t equal for all people in all things. I think there’s something to be said on this subject around opportunity cost as well. In the time you learn React, what else could you learn?

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puritanic profile image
Darkø Tasevski

Yeah, you're right about that.
But if you look at the job market, you'll see that there is a plenty of jobs related to React, so I think that, if you are looking for a job, it would be really good to know some React.

You don't need to React if you're working on the backend tho, but on frontend days of jQuery, Wordpress and PHP are long gone, and you should at least know the basics of the most trending technologies. That's where the money is :)

In the end, I guess it's all just about priorities, and your goals.

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy • Edited

Don't be so fast to discount Wordpress (and the supporting LA/EMP stack).

Wordpress runs 32% of all websites that report tech. That is >50% of ALL content management systems in public use.

w3techs.com/technologies/overview/...

PHP as well, 78.9% of all reporting public websites.

w3techs.com/technologies/overview/...

Not going away any time soon.

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dangolant profile image
Daniel Golant

For me, it’s not the learning curve so much as a style issue (old complaint I know, but still valid imo), and a issue with the trends in the greater frontend community.

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puritanic profile image
Darkø Tasevski • Edited

For me, it’s not the learning curve so much as a style issue (old complaint I know, but still valid imo)

Why valid?

Issue with the trends in the greater frontend community

What issue?

Can you please elaborate on these? :)

PS: I'm not trying to start a frameworks/style war here, just interested in another peoples' opinion.

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dangolant profile image
Daniel Golant

I don't like JSX. I think that's a valid issue, but it's kind of tired and has been litigated to death so I don't really care to re-open it. I think given the choice of "procedural in your layout" vs "layout in your procedural", the former does a much better job of separating concerns. I like the Vue approach to single file components more as well. React (or at least the community) has kind of taken the "JS-ify everything" approach, which I don't really care for, I think HTML and CSS have their place and there's no reason to wrap or indirect them with more JS.

Regarding objections around the greater frontend community, I have issues with hype cycles, build processes, "thought leaders", and what seems to be a trend towards "blog post-driven development" but I don't really want to get into them in this forum.

I do front-end work when I have to, it's just not something I care to do much more of.

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puritanic profile image
Darkø Tasevski

Maybe valid for you 😛You can write React without JSX tho:
github.com/Jador/react-hyperscript...

Just one more question, if you can share with what stack are you working?

I'm working with React, React Native and Vue at my job right now, and while I find React much cleaner to work with I don't have major issues with Vue, in opposite I really like how's some stuff implemented.

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andrewchou profile image
Andrew Chou

This is an interesting question. At the moment, here are some things I can think of:

  • Machine/deep learning or anything related to AI. This includes a good amount of things labeled with data science

  • Mobile app development (although I'd be willing to try Android at some point if necessary)

  • VR

  • Blockchain

  • Game development and graphics programming

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yorodm profile image
Yoandy Rodriguez Martinez

Vim, 'cause you know that Real Programmers Use Emacs

Real Programmers Use Emacs

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cathodion profile image
Dustin King • Edited

I know JavaScript, and will probably learn more of it, but I can't get excited about it for some reason (probably the feeling that this has all been done better in other languages).

I'm not interested in learning iOS or Android or other native GUI programming (but will if I have to).

There are other things that I'm interested in for curiosity's sake, but would probably be a waste of time in the short term for my career path, like assembly language, AI/machine learning, connectome simulation. I do want to learn more math, now that I've become unsatisfied with popular explanations of modern physics, but it would be a distraction as far as my career is concerned to spend time on it.

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jfrankcarr profile image
Frank Carr
  1. Outdated technologies. I don't care to learn development environments that were popular in the 90's and early 00's like Powerbuilder, SQL Windows, Foxpro, ColdFusion, etc. I do know VB6 but I don't want to be stuck only doing that.

  2. Languages outside of the C/C++ linage (ie ones other than C++/Java/C# type languages). While there are some intellectually interesting languages out there, I prefer to stick with what has worked well for me.

  3. A lot of CLI stuff. I did a lot of CLI back in the early DOS days. I wrote my own tools to automate a lot of this. Having to use a lot of CLI to do stuff is annoying to me and makes me want to write tools to automate it (again).

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michi profile image
Michael Z

oh my, Powerbuilder. Brings back memories :D