Engineering video
0:53 · 27 December 2022
Coasting means slacking off and doing the minimum, but software development follows the law of entropy where you either grow or decline. Trying to stay at the same level leads to outdated skills, vulnerability during economic downturns, and being outpaced by colleagues.
Hear it at 0:00 →I see a lot of developers these days that I considering coasting as a career strategy. If you're not familiar with the term, it basically means slacking off. Doing as little as you can and staying at the same level that you are. Not working either too much or too little. What they forget though is that in software development, as in life, you either grow or you die. There is no middle ground. This concept comes from physics and is called entropy.
All systems tend into disorder unless energy is added to the system. Your developer career, it's always going down when it's not going up. And if you don't do something about it, you'll eventually lose momentum and quit. If you just try to get by or coast, one of the following will happen. Number one, your skills will be out of date as technology around you advances, but you don't. Ask anyone doing jQuery back in 2015 when React appeared.
Number two, a pandemic, recession or any unpredictable event suddenly happens and you're being let go with no skills and little to show. Number three, your colleagues out pace you. Get a little number of promotions available while you are just sitting around watching.
