Hello HN! I have a long background in tinkering with development, but I never really sat down to learn it in a way that could get me hired. Part of the issue is because while programming languages can be picked up quite easily by me, their tool chains and all the surrounding dev ops type work is not. I’m just looking for some guidance on where to focus time and energy and what development language ecosystem I should ultimately adhere to. JavaScript as an ecosystem has long seemed to be the pinnacle of employability right now thanks to the sheer number of frameworks that allow it to be implemented for nearly anything these days, but I just feel like I really missed the boat there: While a new generation of devs was busy with JS, I was teaching myself Python and the ecosystem around JS exploded and is now just very difficult to break into and play catch-up. Rust seems like an interesting focus for me potentially (I always liked C/C++ and a modern successor to the venerable systems level languages of yesterday is exciting to me). Swift also seems interesting: Philosophically I love building and using native software on a platform and iOS/Mac development seems like a solid breadwinning career that doesn’t need an immense amount of educational effort to find some success in.
I suppose my true question is twofold and I hope it may also help some others:
1. Thanks to ignorant parenting and a series of bad choices in my life over the years, I lack serious direction right now. I’ve had very well paying jobs, but I hate what I can do for work right now and want to pivot. What can I learn quickly that pays the bills and gets my foot in the door of development? One thing I will say: I prefer the cutting edge and the risks it brings. I have always lived there precariously and would like to continue to do so.
2. Is there a certification I should also focus on? I hear extremely mixed signals on this in the wild. I hold several unrelated certifications in adjacent (still technical) fields and I must say they’ve never really helped me in a practical way other than checking off a box for various employers.
Thanks for any suggestions and guidance
