Re: Broadening my horizons

[Pete Helgren <pete@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Justin,

I am curious as to what would help.  Much of the "future" is grounded in 
open source technologies (IMHO) and having written a book and plenty of 
tutorials, I wonder what would help you move forward?  Jon's counsel is 
certainly solid in staying engaged with the current trends.  And yeah, 
node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java and .Net stuff is pretty much a 'can't 
lose' bet but short of having a crystal ball (who would have guessed 
that RPG would still be going strong?) the best counsel for "seasoned" 
development professionals is that some technology will "resonate" or 
make sense with a clear advantage over others.  In other cases, you can 
just see that the solution doesn't bring a great advantage to the 
learning curve.  Buzz about Groovy and Grails was interesting and 
certainly if it was your entry point for programming, I could see how 
you would like it, but it wasn't compelling enough for me to switch 
because the languages I was working with covered the same bases.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to kick the tires of every new 
thing on the block,  but I was told once that "a wise person will at 
least look at each opportunity" so I do.  Some I seize, some I let go...


Pete Helgren
www.petesworkshop.com
GIAC Secure Software Programmer-Java
LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/petehelgren
Twitter - Sys_i_Geek  IBM_i_Geek

On 10/22/2016 9:54 AM, Justin Taylor wrote:
> Books and tutorials give a basic "Dick & Jane" understanding, but I'm hung up on how to move forward.  Maybe it's just a form of writers block.