

Open source hobbyists now in high demand - tdrnd
http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/300899/open-source-hobbyists-now-high-demand

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aaronbrethorst
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

— Hunter S. Thompson
(<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson#Quotes>)

I first learned Cocoa in 2002 or 2003, fighting through the horrendous
documentation and lack of sample code. I built a simple shareware app, made a
few dollars on it, and then worked on Windows software for the next few years.

Fast-forward a few years, and Apple ships an SDK for the (since-renamed)
iPhone OS. I was able to dust off my (incredibly rusty) knowledge of Cocoa,
learn a few things about the brand-new UIKit framework, and build and ship an
app in a week (nights and weekends, no less) that ended up on the App Store's
top ten paid apps list for several weeks.

Of course, I got incredibly lucky in picking the right stack years before it
was the right stack. There was simply no way to know.

I learned Rails in early 2007 while working at Microsoft, and have used it in
every job I've had since leaving. Rails seemed like a pretty safe bet at the
time in terms of popularity, but I never anticipated it would become as
popular as it has. My only reason for learning Rails was because it looked
awesome.

Meanwhile, I'm (at least for now) completely ignoring Node.js. This might
prove to be a mistake, but I assume I can pick it up without too much trouble
later on if not knowing it becomes a liability.

Lately, I've been teaching myself Ember.js, which has been a heck of a slog
with its rapidly-evolving API and lack of up-to-date samples demonstrating
'real world' use[1]. I hope I'm ahead of the curve on where client-side web
development goes, but there's simply no way to tell yet. And even if I'm
wrong, it's ok because I think Ember is cool and worth learning in its own
right for what I'm using it for.

I guess if I had to sum my thoughts up it would be: learn cool stuff not
because you're trying to provide yourself with job security, but because it's
cool stuff. If you pick the wrong technology, hopefully all of the time you
invested in learning another stack provides value in terms of exposing you to
similar concepts, and you'll be able to pick up the 'right' one with far less
effort than you'd have to expend otherwise.

[1] I'd love to be proven wrong on this point. It'd save me a lot of time and
hassle :)

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aantix
In the past three years, nothing has has contributed more to my career (and
financial growth) than my open source work. It's instant street cred (and a
ton of fun).

<http://www.github.com/aantix>

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raghava
So, nearing GandhiCon Four, I guess
(<http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/G/GandhiCon.html>)

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jfaucett
good article. Also I like the word "Naughts" - first encounter for a word that
is not too awkard for the 2000-2010 slot.

