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A comment on Ask HN: Is it reasonable to be a generalist programmer for your entire career?.

Re:Ask HN: Is it reasonable to be a generalist programmer fo... by ggm on Saturday May 05, 2018 @07:30PM (#17004455)
Not to say it isn't a bad career decision, I've been continuously employed since 1981 and code badly, hackily and it hasn't impeded my career. Pilot systems. MVP, proof of concept, script-oriented roles. Rapid prototyping, stdin | process map/reduce lite.. you name it.

Nobody hired me because my code was good. They hired me because I could talk about it to ordinary mortals and help them see the potential. And, self support (ok, ask a lot of annoying questions of more capable people sitting around me)

I do suggest you acquire some niche skill. Become an expert at writing tiny parsers for DSL. Learn to use an FP language. Then, apply it as a generalist.

Stats and maths are domain specific knowledge generally applied. Have some domain of knowledge (mine is networking) so learn how to tune postgres. Or zfs. Or run a bgp router. Or apply linear algebra to real world decision making. Be good at something useful, besides programming. Then. Apply programming to a problem in that space!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Is it reasonable to be a generalist programmer fo... by userthrow5581 on Saturday May 05, 2018 @07:42PM (#17004490)
I have no strong interest in any particular niche, other than maybe embedded and graphics programming and those have a high barrier to entry. You generally don't find too many jobs much less junior level jobs in those fields.

What has happened in my career is, I have brought myself up to what I admit to be an "expert beginner"... through jobs that have been mostly lonely and unfulfilling experiences for a programmer (not a whole lot of experienced peers to network and learn from). So life has given me lemons, might as well find out how to make lemonade from them.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Is it reasonable to be a generalist programmer fo... by ggm on Saturday May 05, 2018 @08:10PM (#17004602)
Small team dynamics are hard. But, find a tribe. My FP colleague goes to FP Meetup nights monthly, because nobody here can talk to him sensibly. so go find a group near you who meet to talk embedded systems, and .. network.
[ Parent | on HN ]