undefined | Better HN

0 pointsznpy4mo ago0 comments

> Mild counterpoint. Our professions(all things IT) moves bloody fast.

Some areas do, some areas not so much.

I have a colleague that's incredibly strong with databases (we use a mix of MySQL and PostgreSQL) and he's living off the learning he did 20 years ago when he was a junior Oracle consultant.

I live off the learning I did in Linux now that I administer Kubernetes clusters for a living. Once you get past the "cloud native" abstractions (and other BS) it's penguins all the way down, and I get to reuse most of my core Linux competencies I learned 10+ years ago (eg: I do tcpdump in prod, and it's quicker and more effective than many of the modern shiny tools).

0 comments

re-thc4mo ago

> Some areas do, some areas not so much.

It still does change and you have to adapt.

E.g.

> databases (we use a mix of MySQL and PostgreSQL) and he's living off the learning he did 20 years ago when he was a junior Oracle consultant

And there's lots of changes here, e.g. vector stores, all the different query engine improvements, PostgreSQL IO improvements, etc and they all may impact your job. Your optimal query back then might not be the same. Living off the old learnings is like taking a 50% discount on the max potential.

> I live off the learning I did in Linux now that I administer Kubernetes clusters for a living.

And these have had changes consistently too e.g. io-uring and gateway api. You can only be in legacy for so long.

never_inline4mo ago

One thing this comment (and recruiters) don't understand is that someone with foundation can learn these things pretty fast within few months.

re-thc4mo ago

> can learn these things pretty fast within few months.

This totally misses the point. You can learn anything pretty fast in some ways. The point of what my comment replied to was about not learning at all. It was about learning something some years ago and letting it sit like interest in a bank without investing further.

Libidinalecon4mo ago

For udemy classes though it is hard to know what is timeless knowledge vs what is outdated crap starting out.

That is why there isn't much else to go but the heuristic of the most new class with the most ratings.

znpyOP4mo ago

True, but sometimes you need a cheap course about some seasonal garbage.

A few years ago i happily spent 12€ on a course about gitlab ci that saved me quite a bit of time reading documentation and got me started within an afternoon. I had no previous experience with gitlab, but i was well versed with git.

Those were money well spent, for example.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

re-thc4mo ago

> Some areas do, some areas not so much.

It still does change and you have to adapt.

E.g.

> databases (we use a mix of MySQL and PostgreSQL) and he's living off the learning he did 20 years ago when he was a junior Oracle consultant

> I live off the learning I did in Linux now that I administer Kubernetes clusters for a living.

And these have had changes consistently too e.g. io-uring and gateway api. You can only be in legacy for so long.

never_inline4mo ago

One thing this comment (and recruiters) don't understand is that someone with foundation can learn these things pretty fast within few months.

re-thc4mo ago

> can learn these things pretty fast within few months.

Libidinalecon4mo ago

For udemy classes though it is hard to know what is timeless knowledge vs what is outdated crap starting out.

That is why there isn't much else to go but the heuristic of the most new class with the most ratings.

znpyOP4mo ago

True, but sometimes you need a cheap course about some seasonal garbage.

Those were money well spent, for example.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse