Reflections of an “Old” Programmer
I'm a bit older than the author. Every time I feel like I'm "out of touch" with the hip new thing, I take a weekend to look into it. I tend to discover that the core principles are the same, this time someone has added another C to MVC; or the put their spin on an API for doing X; or you can tell they didn't learn from the previous solution and this new one misses the mark, but it'll be three years before anyone notices (because those with experience probably aren't touching it yet, and those without experience will discover the shortcomings in time.)<p>When learning something new, I find that this group implemented with $NEW_THING in a completely different way than that group did an implementation with the exact same $NEW_THING. I have a harder time understanding how the project is organized than I do grokking $NEW_THING. And when I ask "why not $THAT_THING instead?" I get blank stares, and amazement that someone solved the problem a decade ago.<p>Sure, I've seen a few paradigm shifts, but I don't think I've seen anything Truly New in Quite Some Time. Lots of NIH; lots of not knowing the existing landscape.<p>All that said, I hope we find tools that work for people. Remix however you need to for your own edification. Share your work. Let others contribute. Maybe one day we'll stumble on some Holy Grail that helps us understand sooner, be more productive, and generally make the world a better place.<p>But nothing's gonna leave me behind until I'm dead.