Deep Dive, Not Wide: The Power of Mastering a Few Technologies
I hope everyone had a fantastic year and you’re full of motivation for what is to come next in your life.
As I prepared a small report about all my blog posts this year, I realized how many technologies I touched on, which made me think, do I really know all this stuff?
The past few days, I wrote a lot about Remix, but before, it was Next.js and Strapi, and then I threw in a bit of DevOps action with GitHub, AWS, and Docker. The rest was filled with my musings about how I think you should do React and testing.
Do I know all this stuff from top to bottom? Not at all, but here’s my take on this:
Pick one or two technologies and learn them well.
That’s all you need.
Which ones? I have no idea.
The ones you’re working with right now are probably a good start.
I used many technologies—databases, languages, servers, multiple frameworks, and tools native to those languages and environments.
However, in the end, these two made all the difference: JavaScript (TypeScript later) and React.
In the past 7 years of working as a contractor, these two things have carried me over the magical 6-figures.
These are the things I tried to become really good at.
So next time you’re wondering: should I master (this word makes me cringe hard) Next.js, then the next month you’re thinking maybe going with Remix, just remember:
It probably doesn’t matter. Just pick one.
What guarantees that it’s a good pick? Nothing!
In 2019, I went with Razzle.js for a client project. The entire library was deprecated soon after, so be cautious with community-only projects. But is it a good indicator? No! The best projects are community projects.
I won’t delude you into thinking there’s a magical formula for picking tech that will survive as long as React and JavaScript/TypeScript did. There probably isn’t. Although the Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey could be a good place to research.
All I want you to remember is this:
It’s OK to know only a few things really, really good.
Thanks for reading Bitsy, and I wish you a Happy New Year!
– Akos