It’s crazy to think how far we’ve come.
Back when I started in this developer thing, we were still using ugly-azz tables. There was no CSS. Most web pages were mainly just text.
The fancy ones had a few images.
Then, this thing called “Web 2.0” happened.
PHP became a thing.
JavaScript became more prominent.
Before I knew what had happened, the internet as a I thought I knew it had completely changed. Today? It’s even worse.
The kind of change I went through over a few years…
Happens every couple months now.
Take responsive design.
That first article by Ethan Marcotte, initially introducing the idea was published in May of 2010. Bootstrap was initially released in August of 2011.
React in 2013.
Now, we’ve got Node.
Angular.
Laravel.
Then, there’s AI and machine learning on the horizon.
It just keeps coming at us.
And, it can be terrifying. I sometimes wonder… “what the hell am I gonna need to know 5 years from now to still be a developer?”
“Will I even still be a developer 5 years from now?”
Because, all this change leaves a lot of “dead bodies” in its wake. I get emails literally every day from developers who’ve decided to give up.
Because, they’re overwhelmed.
And, just don’t think they can keep up with it all.
Of course, there’s the flip side. The new superstars that pop up from all this change. I remember reading about this T.J. Holowaychuck guy.
Ask anyone who uses Node about him.
He’s the godfather of Node.
He’s credited with having written a “fair half of the core Node.js ecosystem” as one article put it. Then, he switched to Go and is doing the same thing there.
And, of course we know about the Zuckerbergs.
The Brins and Larry Pages of our industry.
What did they get right that so many of their peers didn’t?
They embraced the change. They dug into it and looked for the opportunities from it. And, they kept themselves trained so they could exploit those opportunities.
And, to me, that’s the thing.
With as fast as everything moves these days and the fact that it’s only going to get worse as technology develops… embracing an “always be learning” mindset is critical.
Imagine for a second if you weren’t worried about all this.
It didn’t phase you.
You knew you were good.
In fact, you were excited about all this new stuff cropping up, because you knew you could tackle it all. You could learn whatever you needed to.
And, take advantage of all these opportunities.
I believe that’s what an “always be learning”, “embrace the change” mindset gives you. It’s confidence. It’s excitement. It’s no fear. It’s security.
You’re ready.
Whatever may come.
Of course, then there’s the logistics of actually learning everything you need to. And, you know my thoughts on colleges and C.S. degrees.
I think, for most people, they’re a waste…
Of time and muney.
Especially, web developers.
Even the Udemy’s of the world don’t really get it, IMO.
In this new world of extremely rapid change, having to sift through 1000s of courses, find the right one, make sure it’s good, pay the fee…
It’s too much overhead.
You need to move fast.
And, spend most of your time actually learning…
Not “prepping” to learn.
And, as a quick aside, that’s why I’ve embraced SkillShare so hard. I put all my courses on there exclusively and have been pushing it super hard to you.
Because it fits so perfectly with what’s happening.
How fast things are changing.
And, the constant learning we all HAVE to be doing now.
I think it is thee cure, so to speak.
Because when you’re a member…
You get access to everything.
Every single one of the 21,000+ courses there.
You just get.
No need to waste all this time reading through product descriptions figuring out which course to take. Then, you get one wrong and it’s crap.
Now, you’re out the muney you spent on it.
Nope, you see one you wanna try.
You just start taking it.
That’s it.
No guessing.
Plus, there’s courses on everything from React to Node, HTML, CSS, PHP, freelancing, design… everything you need to stay competitive.
In fact, the variety of classes…
Is one of the most common positive comments.
For example, this one from Michaela:
“I love Skillshare for it’s variety of classes they offer. You can learn anything from knitting, to cooking, writing, logo design, analytics, photography, and so on. The platform has thousands of classes on any topic you can think of.”
Or this from Amanda:
“There is SUCH a wide array of skills and topics covered in some form or another. And the team does a great job of maintaining high-quality content from the instructors and their presentations.”
And, plenty of others.
Anyway, I’m not here to pester you about it. It either seems obvious to you, like it does me, or it doesn’t. That’s for you to figure out.
But, if you wanna give it a shot…
I can give you an exclusive 2-month no-cost trial.
So, you can see for yourself.
That link is here: https://www.skillshare.com/r/user/johnmorris
But, whatever you do…
Embrace the change.
Don’t get swept away by it.
And, ALWAYS be learning!
Later,
John
