[sunsetSamurai]

I agree with this article, but with one caveat. Don't be the guy that becomes the designated INSERT_OLD_TECH_HERE guy in the office while the rest of the team is working with the cool modern tech that has a lot of jobs in the market, don't pigeon your career by becoming an expert in legacy tech, like COBOL, RPGLE or FORTRAN. You'll find yourself in a position where you'll get fired and won't be able to find another job because there aren't many jobs for your skills and because companies only want to hire people with years of experience in the tech they're using, be it javascript, java, go etc.

And also these legacy techs don't pay that much in general, for every consultant making bank fixing COBOL bugs there are probably dozens or more COBOL developer making less than a javascript developer, so you'll find yourself making less money than a kid with a 3 years of experience in web development, and when you go out in the market trying to switch jobs, you'll have a hard time finding a new job or salaries will suck. Don't be stupid and become the fall guy to keep the legacy debt going while everybody else in the company is learning the in-demand cool stuff and padding their resumes with hire able skills. You will regret it.

[mooreds]

This is a great point. I think there's a balance between "OOH, shiny new thing" and "kids these days". It always pays to play with new tech or otherwise learn about it. Both for you the developer (who avoids getting pigeon holed) and for the business (because there may be new capabilities or cost savings).

But introducing it willy nilly into production applications because you want to gain experience with it is bad. Bad for the business, at least. For you it might be resume driven development.

That's why I always advocate for time and space for developers to play with new things on the company's dime. Some good options:

- conferences

- hackfests

- spikes

After some investigation, you can layer in new tech where it makes sense, which makes for an even more compelling story on the resume.

Of course, you also have to have business buy-in that this is a worthwhile use of time. R&D and investing have a lot longer history than the craft of software engineering, so that's the approach I'd take.

[francisofascii]

I hope part of the goal of this article is to fight back against these trends. If the decision makers can gain more confidence in choosing boring/mature tech rather than trendy tech, there will be more demand for it. Many times people choose the trendy tech, not because it is the right tool, but because of the reasons you mention.

[mybazongas]

This is a lot more of a scathing indictment of the irrational pop culture that is our sclerotic industry than you might think.

[phlakaton]

Nice try, but you're not getting me to let go of ASN.1 that easily.

[mixmastamyk]

Fully agreed, though your examples are twenty-five years out of date. :-D