DEV Community

Discussion on: Understanding The Hierarchy of Competence

Collapse
 
kathryngrayson profile image
Kathryn Grayson Nanz • Edited

Very valid point – one that probably deserves it's OWN blog post, haha!

In my opinion, the higher-level concepts and general knowledge that I've learned in the process of picking up new frameworks, etc. have generally outlived the actual usefulness of the new thing itself. For example: I recently spent quite a bit of time mastering the charts.js library for one specific client project that required 70+ immensely detailed and customizable charts. Will I ever need to use all that charts.js-specific knowledge again? Maybe, maybe not (hopefully not, honestly – 70 charts was a pain in the ass). But I improved my JS skills overall by nature of having to learn, troubleshoot, and customize / tweak in that library for my client's specific needs. So, I try not to think of it as a waste of time if I learn a library or framework that I don't end up using again, but rather a chance to improve my job skills in a more general way.

I've read "Hype isn't a use case" and I agree with it, actually – but in this case, I think there's a difference between learning something (on a personal level) vs. choosing to implement that thing in a team environment for a project that will need to be maintained.

Collapse
 
aptituz profile image
Patrick Schönfeld

(...) but in this case, I think there's a difference between learning something (on a personal
level) vs. choosing to implement that thing in a team environment for a project that will need
to be maintained.

Yep.

I agree with that and I think the author of the article does, too. He even says that people shall "keep pushing forward and learning". Kinda makes sense to me: How is one supposed to pick the right tool if he never (at least) held the wrong tool in his hands?