[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How do you future-proof yourself?
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Ask HN: How do you future-proof yourself?
Been using proprietary OSs (Windows, macOS) and I think
fundamentally they're rock solid. But I also fear the day that
Apple and MS either go bankrupt or just stop supporting their OSs.
It happens all the time at a smaller scale, like, each version of
macOS breaks some features/apps that I'm used to, and MS stops
supporting Windows versions after a few years. I always thought
Linux would be the most future-proof OS, but choosing something
like Fedora entails the same problems as above (something being
maintained by a corporation), and other distros seem too distracted
that I don't know if most of them will be around in a few years
anyway. Same thing with my tools. Atom was dropped in favor of VSC
and Zed, despite having millions of users. Again, it seems
something like Vim or Emacs would be the most future-proof
alternative. Sure, VSCode is supposedly open-source, but I don't
think people will fork and maintain it if MS suddenly stops
support. I fear that any sophisticated and complex project, even if
it's open-source, will not be properly supported outside of its
core team, especially if there are competitive alternatives.
TLDR-- How do you go about making yourself future-proof? In the
sense that you won't have to re-learn new tools every few years and
instead focus on getting the job done.
Author : behnamoh
Score : 13 points
Date : 2022-06-26 19:19 UTC (3 hours ago)
| gregjor wrote:
| Join the Amish. If you work with technology constant change comes
| with the territory. You future-proof yourself by adapting.
|
| I've worked in the software business for 40 years and I'm happy
| I'm not stuck with what I learned decades ago.
| gennarro wrote:
| Seconded. I embrace change while appreciating that fundamentals
| compound over time and most things aren't that different from
| one another. For example you mentioned Atom - your transition
| to Sublime, VS Code etc will be much easier because of your
| learnings in your previous editor. That's something that you
| wouldn't have had if you didn't put online the time or you were
| x years younger.
| doktorhladnjak wrote:
| Why do you need to be future-proof? Optimizing for that outcome
| means giving up other significant qualities in your tools.
| Avoiding change is how you end up a fossil who can't adapt.
| tkiolp4 wrote:
| I focus on getting better at learning. That's how I have survived
| the last 15 years in the software industry. Luckily enough, I
| like learning... but I do choose what to learn. For instance, I
| have been learning Ansible recently (for side projects) just for
| fun and because I like its core (agentless way of performing
| chores on multiple machines). I haven't yet learn k8s (because I
| dislike the idea of it).
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Never stop learning, always be saving towards financial
| independence so that you'll be okay when you're no longer able or
| willing to learn something new to support yourself.
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| Do an insanely good job on whatever you are working on. You'll
| get a really good reputation. Future proofed.
| jstx1 wrote:
| Use the thing that you like the most right now and don't worry
| about it too much. Especially with these examples - who cares if
| your code editor isn't supported anymore - you can always switch
| to a different one with hardly any cost.
| hotpotamus wrote:
| I'm still a fan of open source here. Never really used Fedora,
| but I was under the impression it's a fairly genuine hybrid
| community/corporate project and Red Hat is fairly decent about
| that. Of course IBM is going to IBM. I've liked Ubuntu for a long
| time, but after a decade or so, Canonical is pretty well trying
| my patience and has me playing more with straight Debian which is
| what, about 30 years old now?
|
| The BSDs also seem quite staid - I'll probably be moving any
| firewalls I can to PFSense where possible after dealing with the
| lifecycle hassles that Cisco and Sonicwall have put me through
| now.
|
| But I think the most important thing is to use open formats to
| store your data; you don't really own it if it's closed.
| gregjor wrote:
| Those are all variants of tunic, which dates back to the '70s.
| The differences are more like climate controls in different
| cars than significantly different tools.
| nbernard wrote:
| Under the assumption that the lifetime of such "tools" follows a
| power law, then the life expectancy of a currently used tool is
| how long it has already been around. So, from this point of view,
| the older the tool (editor, language, etc.) the better.
|
| Still, it may be moot for most of those tools evolve sufficiently
| during their lifetime that one can wonder if they remain the
| same. Is Emacs with modes such as org or magit really the same
| emacs that was used in the '90s? Would a Linux sysadmin from 2000
| really feel at home with a 2022 Linux and systemd, containers and
| ...
| behnamoh wrote:
| > Still, it may be moot for most of those tools evolve
| sufficiently during their lifetime that one can wonder if they
| remain the same.
|
| This is a very good point. I hadn't thought about it.
| al_borland wrote:
| Major shifts won't happen all that quickly. You'll see them
| coming and have time to adapt and learn new things. There is
| generally also a long tail of companies that are slow to move
| that still need support.
|
| The main thing I think about for future proofing isn't related to
| skills, but rather data. What file formats should I use to ensure
| I can still get access to me data a couple decades from now. When
| I was young my dad told me to use rtf for the papers I wrote, so
| I could open them anywhere, but I can't open those anymore on
| modern systems (or the files or corrupt). My thought is to use
| text files or markdown wherever and whenever possible, but then
| there is a question of ease of use. How much time will I spend
| trying to maintain a text based system vs just having to spend a
| few hours migrating every 5-10 years if there is a big shift in
| where/how I'm looking to store my data.
| gregjor wrote:
| RTF is still supported by major word processors. You can also
| open the files as text, RTF is just markdown with control
| characters.
|
| Tangent to the topic but if you're stuck with old RTF fills
| something else is wrong with them.
| _vertigo wrote:
| Maybe I'm just young, but what field that you work in that you
| feel it's worth investing in preventing the need to stay up to
| date? In my field, I find myself needing to learn so much every
| week that the idea of learning a new IDE or something every 3
| years seems like a drop on the bucket.
|
| I'd argue that rather than resisting change you should embrace it
| - future-proofing oneself means adopting new technologies
| proactively and staying ahead of the curve to avoid being left
| behind, not finding the magical set of tools than won't ever
| become obsolete.
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