Ask HN: With such fast changes in technology, how do you update your skillset?
Depends. I&#x27;m shepherding <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.airwindows.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.airwindows.com&#x2F;</a> through a switch to Patreon, by expressing new DSP ideas in a context of very, very old audio plugin frameworks. The dev tools I&#x27;m using won&#x27;t even work on current computers. I code on a time capsule laptop and depend on the very simplified plugin formats I&#x27;ve chosen (generic interface AU and VST) to remain functional. They&#x27;d have to break the most fundamental interfaces to kill my stuff (which doesn&#x27;t make it impossible to do, just very user-hostile)<p>Don&#x27;t confuse advances in technology with intentional churn generated by vendors and platforms. The latter is a plague, and it doesn&#x27;t only cost people money, it costs them productivity. You may be getting confused and mistaking skillset for toolset. Large companies will always be able to replace your toolset and demand you learn a whole new one, because the more you do, the more you&#x27;ll be locked in to their toolset. If you can abstract out the functions being implemented and express them in different ways, you can take your skillset different places.<p>Whether you do that, depends on how good you are at finding niche markets. As someone who&#x27;s stayed in business for ten years selling GUI-less audio plugins with no advertising and no DRM of any sort, I can tell you (1) niche markets exist and they&#x27;re loyal, and (2) they&#x27;re small, which is what makes them niche. :)