Specific technologies that won't change:
- Unix. It's been in use since 1969, runs on almost every device. It isn't going anywhere.
- In particular, become fluent with its ideas and the CLI. That group at bell labs was hands down the best programmers doing the best programming.
- LISP. It's been in less use since 1958 and influences almost every modern language. It's like learning greek classics because of their influence.
- HTTP. The basics of the internet haven't changed and work pretty well.
- Text. Text is the best way to convey information. Nothing beats it. Not pictures. Not audio. Not video. Learn text manipulation.
Please elaborate on including LISP. Having been programming since the 1980s, its influence seems more a persistent curiosity than fundamental concept. C/C++ may be the more relevant unchanging language, core concepts applicable to most modern languages (which just re-implement them with more depth of expression, and less room for system-crashing errors).
I have personally focused on C/C++, but I would say that Lisp has more natural interpretation to the way that processors and compilers work best. The last 20-40 years have been focused on making them work well for C/C++, which is made for a very simple type of processor, but it hasn’t been a great fit. Modern compilers look at C code and attempt to recognize intent rather than translate to instructions, and then even the processor re-orders everything based on guesses, whereas Lisp is more like a direct declaration of that intent, although somewhat more limited.
Stepping back, there may be some merit to going directly at the assembly. It would not surprise me if computer architects and programmers of the future could align to basically eliminate the concepts of compiler, optimizer, superscalar pipeline, re-order buffer etc. Its really getting ridiculous.
I would also ask to elaborate. Looking at its history I don't feel like C has been conceived with some concept in mind. C++ OOP implementation doesn't look the best of its kind.
Strongly agree with this list. Only thing is I'd swap out Lisp for Awk/Snobol4/Perl (given the last bullet on text). Text manipulation will be timeless. Even in the "modern world" of PowerBI tools I spend least time possible learning manipulation with DAX/M... I just don't see them lasting the way *nix tools have (and will continue to last).
I wish this was only the binary front end so I could pick my parser (e.g. PowerShell). I see fq seems to support sending the whole JSON to stdout; I wonder if there's a way to make this the default behavior:
I wrote a small script to convert CSVs to JSON strictly to use jq on the output. Querying things like your GCP bill with jq is quite enjoyable.
gojq is also nice. I work with a lot of structured logs and wrapped jq with a little bit of format-understanding and output sugar to make looking at and analyzing such logs an enjoyable experience: https://github.com/jrockway/json-logs
This is not true. People who fix cultures are called "leaders" and the good ones do it every day, little by little. Chisel at the marble slab and eventually you'll sculpt a masterpiece.
Depends on the state of the culture. It has to be at least "fixable" with somewhat open-minded people at the top. There are 10x more people who try to fix cultures but end up burning out and being a scapegoat for everything.
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