Reflections of an “Old” Programmer
The first is knowledge decay. Everything we know, not just about programming, has an expiration
.. This piece of knowledge could be said to have a long half-life.
I’ve seen quite a few colleagues take the bigger pay check at an employer where there’ll be little opportunity to work with new things and learn. In 5 years, they realize that much of their valuable knowledge has evaporated and their pay is way out of whack with their actual worth. In some cases, I think making less money in the short term (at a better employer) will yield more money (and stability) over the course of a long career.
Second, given that time is limited, I try to invest most in knowledge that is durable. My energy is better spent accumulating knowledge that has a longer half-life – algorithms, application security, performance optimization, and architecture. Carving out niches in these areas, I hope, will better bullet-proof my career than learning the newest, flash-in-the-pan Javascript library.