I would guess - at least for a lot of developers in my cohort - we came into tech at a time when every few years there was some big improvement to software productivity. Staying current with language features, new languages, and new paradigms could be the difference between getting that next job or not. Especially since people younger in their career are often expected (yes, even in tech) to be current with all the latest and greatest. A new graduate with only C experience is going to have a much much smaller pool of potential jobs than one with React and NodeJS. We've gotten trained (and paid) to assume the old isn't effective, and the new must be better. Obviously this isn't always the case, but I think it leads to a culture of obsessing about the new hotness and ignoring everything else.
That makes perfect sense. They are looking for jobs. (Which is not bad!)
"We" were going to build a new world. So I guess we were some kind of idiots. After I sold my first "game" on an Apple 2 in 1984 (they paid me a lot), I went to work a semiconductor manufacture, and AT&T and Apple and General Magic and Motorola were going to re-invent the world.
Good engineering work - bad vision. Didn't work.
Meanwhile in Japan, where I worked, I translated Nintendo Games (In addition to the adobe and lucas arts stuff, which was more for Sega) to the 6502 (hey, I'm old), and made money trying to make the meet the new.
I think it was easier back then. I think there was less intergenerational hostility.
Why do we have inter-generational hostility? I know how to bring the old arcades alive! :-) (Actually I know how to activate satellites - if we want low-cost back-haul - packets here - packets there - There are 0.1% utilized GPRS networks out there.
AND Now we are getting into topics that you don't want to hear about.
I do really appreciate your willingness to share tonight. You broke open a couple of pre-conceptions. And I guess that's the reason you talk to people.
