My Advice to Developers in 2024

You are probably coding in JavaScript or Python. That’s cool. I do too (Python). Just know that you are perched high on top of two huge highly evolved technology stacks. The software stack and the network stack.

The best advice I can offer you is to consider going deep into both of these stacks. When you come back to the surface, you will be a better developer for it. It will be rewarding — I promise you. On the software side — go as deep as assembly code if you want. On the network side, go as deep as the physical layer by making your own network cables if you want.

Things are a lot more stable the deeper you go. Ethernet is 51 years old and still going strong [¹] (although there is an interesting fight brewing for AI networking dominance [²]) . The von Neumann architecture, on which your PC (and pretty much every digital device) is based, is almost 80 years old and still going strong [³].

This is in contrast to, for example the state of modern web development. The churn of web frameworks is staggering where shiny new frameworks have a relatively short shelf-life soon to be replaced with something else. See the figure below from Stack Overflow for an indication.

The surf is rough. If you go deeper beneath the surface, you will find more stability and calm. It doesn’t mean you have to stay there — but it will make you more adaptable and buoyant when you come to the surface.

You will become more adaptable because new technologies typically are built on top of something deeper in the stack that already exists (QUIC is good example in the networking world). It will be easier and quicker for you to learn that particular new technology if you already have an understanding of the lower layers on which it is built.

. . .

[1]: - IEEE Spectrum. Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years https://spectrum.ieee.org/ethernet-ieee-milestone

[2]: - The Next Platform. CISCO GUNS FOR INFINIBAND WITH SILICON ONE G200 https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/06/22/cisco-guns-for-infiniband-with-silicon-one-g200/

[3]: - John von Neumann. First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Knuth_Don_X4100/PDF_index/k-8-pdf/k-8-u2593-Draft-EDVAC.pdf