Dealing with the rate of change in software development

Question

I am primarily a .NET developer, and in that sphere alone there are at any given time probably close to a dozen fascinating emerging technologies, some of them real game-changers, that I would love to delve into.

Sadly, this appears to be beyond the limits of human capacity.

I read an article by Rocky Lhotka (.NET legend, inventor of CSLA, etc) where he mentioned, almost in passing, that last year he felt very terribly overwheled by the rate of change. He made it sound like maybe it wasn't possible to stay on the bleeding edge anymore, that maybe he wasn't going to try so hard because it was futile.

It was a surprise to me that true geniuses like Lhotka (who are probably expected to devote a great deal of their time to playing with the latest technology and should be able to pick things up quickly) also feel the burn!

So, how do you guys deal with this? Do you just chalk it up to the fact that development is vast, and it's more important to be able to find things quickly than to learn it all? Or do you have a continuing education strategy that actually allows you to stay close to the cutting edge?

Answer 1

I have been in IT for 30 years now, so perhaps I can offer some perspective. Yes, there is an increasing amount of material to keep abreast of. But the rate of change (as in "progress") is not increasing - if anything, it is decreasing. What we are seeing is a widening of the field.

Take a simple example: Once upon a time there was HTML/1. Then came HTML/2 and that was progress. Now we have HTML/4, HTML/5, XHTML/1, Flash, Silverlight, and on and on. Any one of these is progress, but each is progress in a different direction and all are in active use.

Stay on top of this? Forget it - it's not possible. On the other hand, good IT folks can pick up a new language or a new technology in a few weeks at most - no big deal. Try to pick out the genuinely new ideas and learn about them. Ignore all the specific technologies (IIS 7, SQL Server 2008, etc.) unless and until you need them.

Continuing the Internet as an example, the last real innovation were the ideas behind Web 2.0. I took the opportunity to learn Ruby at the same time - did a couple of small, throw-away projects in Ruby on Rails. If a project in this area comes along, the ideas will be the same in whatever environment.

One does occasionally get frustrated. It's not always easy to pick out the truly new ideas amidst all the marketing hype.

All the best...

Brad