About the benefits and dangers of specialization for developers
Many developers prefer to specialize in a particular technology. And at first glance it looks very reasonable. As long as the market is interested in your specialized skills, your remuneration will exceed the salaries of those people who work with the same technology, but are not as specialized in it as you. You can use the Internet for your own purposes in order to glorify yourself in a specific technology for the sake of recognizing you as a specialist and increasing the opportunity to receive income from your specialty in the future.
But, this approach has its drawbacks. First, in the world of software development, there are always alternative technologies that are ready to become major. Of course, not all of them will become mainstream, but some of them - yes. And when this happens, it is always best to try them out, for various reasons. They can make your work much easier. They can reduce the cost of developing the project you are working on. They simply can be much nicer than the technologies you are working with. And perhaps, these new technologies can only be short-term fashion, and in two years no one will remember them. Who knows? You certainly do not remember if you ignore them. You do not need to dive headlong into any new technology and approach that is becoming popular, but there certainly will be no harm if you at least become familiar with the new technology. At least you will learn something new.
There is another factor that you should not forget, you can not even imagine how important it is. If you specialize in paid technologies, you should always pay attention to the alignment of forces in the market that may affect the technology provider. These forces may have nothing to do with you (or seem unrelated to you), but they influence the decisions taken by the supplier and his work strategy if the supplier himself competes with companies at a higher level than even your company or customers And when a supplier changes tactics due to market influence, your technology may either be abandoned, or stop being the hot new thing that benefits you.
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And this is one of the greatest dangers in specialization. Specialization in a particular technology is your personal investment. Your current standard of living, your livelihood is largely dependent on a particular technology. Of course, you can move on to something else, but you will need to get used to less than what you’ve already had, probably for a while, and this will affect money and your height as a specialist. Frankly, most likely that is why you are so attached to the current technology. When you come across bad news regarding the future of your technology, you are most likely to have the first symptoms of not accepting this news. Recent news about the change in strategy for Silverlight , in particular, the reaction to this change - this is a wonderful example. Silverlight experts wrote blogs and convinced people about the virtues of technology and the fact that we all should not attach too much importance to the latest Microsoft applications. This is a classic refusal to accept reality and this will happen to you if you, for any reason, are emotionally attached to technology.
The next danger is that when you focus on one particular technology, it begins to “wash” your eyes. You are no longer watching what other people are working with. Perhaps you have already learned and become accustomed to accepting the shortcomings of your technology when other developers do not face such problems at all. You know what works and how to make it work. Thus, you are no longer looking for ways to improve your work style. This leads to a situation where you think you are doing your job well, although in reality you just don’t know anything better.
Instead, specializing in a particular technology will be much better in the long run if you make sure that your skills are transferred to other technologies. Focus your attention first on the concept, and only then, on a specific implementation. You will need concrete implementations, but a firm understanding of the concept of working with something behind the implementation will help you easily transfer your skills and experience to other technologies. You still have to get used to the new technology, but, of course, you can make the jump faster and easier than another person who focused exclusively on specific implementations.
Keep your ears, your eyes and your mind open. If you notice that a group of people are excited about something new, then you should find out why. If you notice that someone else works better, then find out why. If you notice an increasing stream of criticism of the technology you are using, then find out the reason. You will need this information to make an informed decision about your future.
Dmitry_Zhariy says:
Try to read this text in English!
As an experiment , I published a mixed version of this text on the pages of my blog:
About the benefits and dangers of specialization for developers
The meaning of the mixed (English-Russian) text format is that by reading the text in this format, you are training your English language skills. But, if suddenly the word or phrase is not clear to you, you can always look at the translation, which is located below.
I am an amateur translator, and I want to immediately warn you that the translation will not be of the highest quality, but I promise that the meaning will be clear.
Example of mixed translation:
But, this approach has its drawbacks. First, in the world of software development, there are always alternative technologies that are ready to become major. Of course, not all of them will become mainstream, but some of them - yes. And when this happens, it is always best to try them out, for various reasons. They can make your work much easier. They can reduce the cost of developing the project you are working on. They simply can be much nicer than the technologies you are working with. And perhaps, these new technologies can only be short-term fashion, and in two years no one will remember them. Who knows? You certainly do not remember if you ignore them. You do not need to dive headlong into any new technology and approach that is becoming popular, but there certainly will be no harm if you at least become familiar with the new technology. At least you will learn something new.
There is another factor that you should not forget, you can not even imagine how important it is. If you specialize in paid technologies, you should always pay attention to the alignment of forces in the market that may affect the technology provider. These forces may have nothing to do with you (or seem unrelated to you), but they influence the decisions taken by the supplier and his work strategy if the supplier himself competes with companies at a higher level than even your company or customers And when a supplier changes tactics due to market influence, your technology may either be abandoned, or stop being the hot new thing that benefits you.
')
And this is one of the greatest dangers in specialization. Specialization in a particular technology is your personal investment. Your current standard of living, your livelihood is largely dependent on a particular technology. Of course, you can move on to something else, but you will need to get used to less than what you’ve already had, probably for a while, and this will affect money and your height as a specialist. Frankly, most likely that is why you are so attached to the current technology. When you come across bad news regarding the future of your technology, you are most likely to have the first symptoms of not accepting this news. Recent news about the change in strategy for Silverlight , in particular, the reaction to this change - this is a wonderful example. Silverlight experts wrote blogs and convinced people about the virtues of technology and the fact that we all should not attach too much importance to the latest Microsoft applications. This is a classic refusal to accept reality and this will happen to you if you, for any reason, are emotionally attached to technology.
The next danger is that when you focus on one particular technology, it begins to “wash” your eyes. You are no longer watching what other people are working with. Perhaps you have already learned and become accustomed to accepting the shortcomings of your technology when other developers do not face such problems at all. You know what works and how to make it work. Thus, you are no longer looking for ways to improve your work style. This leads to a situation where you think you are doing your job well, although in reality you just don’t know anything better.
Instead, specializing in a particular technology will be much better in the long run if you make sure that your skills are transferred to other technologies. Focus your attention first on the concept, and only then, on a specific implementation. You will need concrete implementations, but a firm understanding of the concept of working with something behind the implementation will help you easily transfer your skills and experience to other technologies. You still have to get used to the new technology, but, of course, you can make the jump faster and easier than another person who focused exclusively on specific implementations.
Keep your ears, your eyes and your mind open. If you notice that a group of people are excited about something new, then you should find out why. If you notice that someone else works better, then find out why. If you notice an increasing stream of criticism of the technology you are using, then find out the reason. You will need this information to make an informed decision about your future.
Dmitry_Zhariy says:
Try to read this text in English!
As an experiment , I published a mixed version of this text on the pages of my blog:
About the benefits and dangers of specialization for developers
The meaning of the mixed (English-Russian) text format is that by reading the text in this format, you are training your English language skills. But, if suddenly the word or phrase is not clear to you, you can always look at the translation, which is located below.
I am an amateur translator, and I want to immediately warn you that the translation will not be of the highest quality, but I promise that the meaning will be clear.
Example of mixed translation:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/114991/
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