

Ask HN: What are your tech/programming 'bets'? - KhalPanda

What technologies are you currently interested in that you think will be useful in the future?<p>I&#x27;m currently at a total loss for what to pour my time into. I&#x27;m working in a low-end support role, having done development on the side for nearly 4 years now. Primarily for the web - I&#x27;ve done development and built toy projects with a lot of tools - far too much to list (PHP - Vanilla&#x2F;Symfony2, JS - Node&#x2F;Meteor, SQL and NoSQL db&#x27;s, lots of API integrations, experience with lots of IDE&#x27;s and tools, etc).<p>But I find myself (4 years down the line) with basically no finished&#x2F;polished public projects to call my own and generally uncertain which direction I should head in. I don&#x27;t feel confident applying for any jobs since I as I mentioned, I don&#x27;t have any public work to share, so my CV looks pathetic. The solution is obvious (build some), but I find myself changing my mind about the tech stack half way through and trying something else a lot of the time. I feel like I need to start being a master of one trade rather than jack of none.<p>There was a funny post (either on HN or linked to from HN) a while ago, of somebody trying to choose a tech stack to use&#x2F;focus on, and that describes me perfectly. I can&#x27;t get anything done for the overwhelming choice...<p>Whilst a lot of web-work is just CRUD, the web is shifting towards an expectation of realtime data or app-like behaviour. So naturally things like Meteor, or a combination of a backend stack with Angular&#x2F;Ember with Phonegap look promising... but then for anything other than simple apps, the UX is still not quite there, so I look at native app development.. so Android or iOS.. argh!<p>Help?! How can I &#x27;get shit done&#x27; and get onto the correct path to an interesting job in development?
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lastofus
It's not the new hotness, and not really sexy, but if you care about
employability, it's hard not to recommend Java. Between enterprise backend web
services, Android, and to a lesser extent desktop apps, there will be plenty
of Java jobs over the next decade.

The nice thing about 'enterprise' companies is they tend to have a lot of
money, and will be around for awhile, needing their code built/maintained.
Same can't be said for most startups.

Python/Django or Ruby/Rails is another solid choice, but people don't realize
how rare these tech stacks are outside of the SF Bay Area and NY. They got
nothing on Java. I would say it's even easier to find .NET employment relative
to the tech stacks commonly talked about on HN. For instance, in the midwest,
companies will throw fistfuls of money at .NET devs as they are in high demand
and low supply at the moment.

You are asking about an 'interesting job' though... at the end of the day only
you can decide what you find interesting.

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timmm
> Between enterprise backend web services.

For me at least I would not want this sort of job, and I doubt I would be
considered qualified.

> Android

It's unclear to me if native apps won't be usurped by the webview route.

> and to a lesser extent desktop apps

This is almost clearly on the down trend.

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timmm
Javascript.

Growing use among web apps, growing use on server side. Applications are
running more and more on the client. Most popular way to build an API is with
Node.js, API's are only growing. MVC frameworks are only growing. Use of JSON
is growing.

The answer to this question seems fairly obvious to me.

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galfarragem
As a noobie I'm all-in with javascript and meteor. Why?

It's still the wild west and new people still on time to enter the land rush.
And the best of all: any settler is welcome, no need to be a ninja to survive.

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Zigurd
My bet is that Android's current 85% dominance of mobile devices will last at
least as long as Microsoft's dominance of PC operating systems. Google will
never reach what was once Microsoft's almost total hegemony. But Android will
reach into cars, appliances, instruments and other device outside of mobile
handsets and tablets in ways Windows never did.

