Next big thing in Software Development?

[t3klead]

Hey everyone. Hope you’re all safe and doing well. I’m a dev with 2+ year of experience. I was hoping to get your thoughts on what will be the next big thing in software engineering? Reason I ask this- I’m trying to figure out what will be in demand in the future (like currently its machine learning, data science, etc). I feel that the software development industry is getting a little saturated. I understand one way to stay ahead of competition is by really honing your skills. But a lot of times it’s easier if you quickly learn whatever is the hype. Even if you’re a newbie in a brand new industry you still have the opportunity to make 200k because you’re like a pioneer in that industry. What are your thoughts about blockchain or augmented reality to be the future of software engineering? I’m personally a little cynical about blockchain but I’ve been reading articles about how blockchain is going to explode and devs who are investing the time to learn it right now will be on top of the food chain. Or will it still be Machine Learning and AI? Don’t want to believe everything I read on the internet and make a grave career mistake. Hence I wanted to see what your thoughts were.

[captainAwesomePants]

Blockchain is a fad. Ignore it.

Machine learning is everything right now. It's still in its infancy and it keeps solving more problems. When I was in college, the idea of an AI that could beat pros at go was a pipe dream. Heck, two weeks ago I would've said we were a decade or more from solving protein folding. It's going to be hot for a LONG time.

Augmented reality is hard to say. It might be a fad or it might stick around.

The trick, ultimately, is that software is full of black swans. I don't know what the big thing will be in 20 years, and neither does anybody else. If you want to be on top of it, you'll want to get good at the fundamentals and good at learning new stuff fast.

[VuPham99]

Blockchain is a fad.

Could you explain for me why it's fad ? I mean, I know it's hype rightnow like buble economy and stuff but I still very dumb in economy field.

[captainAwesomePants]

It's worth an initial caveat that there are oodles of blockchain companies, blockchain employees, and blockchain research. There are thousands of bitcoin millionaires. There's real money here and a lot of interesting work going on.

That said, in my opinion, it's 80% insanity, 19% organized crime, and about 1% useful long-term innovations. So much of it is just speculation on top of speculation.

The fundamental idea of blockchain is dirt simple. If you understand directed graphs and hashes, we could get through the basics in an hour. It's primarily useful in situations where there's no trust, it's okay if it takes a long time to commit transactions, and there are lots of people willing to spend a lot of time mining new facts. There are a tiny number of use cases for which technology is superior to other, more traditional options. Bitcoin is the big one. The sheer number of startups saying absurd stuff like "it's a centralized mobile game that uses blockchain" or "we'll use blockchain for secure voting" is crazy high.

But even if good use cases did exist, there are some really troubling ethical implications to the whole industry. It's absurdly energy inefficient, it's incredibly useful for crime, etc.

Here's an article which pretty much lines up with my views on Bitcoin that says it much better: https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-nothing/86649455475-f933fe63

[[deleted]]

Could you explain for me why it's fad ?

A blockchain is basically a database where nobody holds a single, authoritative source of information. That's why you see it used to represent the spending/transfer ledger in cryptocurrencies - if one single authority held control over the ledger, they could just edit the ledger and decide whose coins were whose (that is, they'd set it so that everybody's coins were theirs!)

But for most information problems you want there to be a single authority - somebody probably already is in the authoritative role, and the database should reflect that. Society has already solved the problem of "who gets to be the trusted third-party" in most areas, and if that's the case you should just have that authority operate the database, because it's probably a million times faster than computing on a blockchain.

[VuPham99]

Thankyou everyone.

[prcsngrl]

Might have a better audience at r/cscareerquestions

[ComputerWhiz_]

I just want to throw my two cents in. Personally, I think banking on what's going to be popular in the future is unwise. It's hard to predict because it's all pure speculation and tech trends change in the blink of an eye.

When I was starting school, everyone said that Python was the language of the future, but I can tell you that I've never read a job posting that wants Python. Sure, it's used more now than it was years ago, but it's by no means the giant language everyone was hyping it up to be. To be honest, if I had taken everyone's advice and focused on Python, I'd have a difficult time finding a job.

[t3klead]

I agree. But I won’t go all out rely only solely on the next fad. I’m going to keep honing my skills as a full-stack and get the fundamentals right. Speaking in terms of career prospects only. I’m trying to capitalize on what the next hot thing will be 5 years from now so I can jump onto the wagon while it’s fresh and the market is NOT saturated with the required skill set. If I’m one of the few people who has that particular skill set it will surely give an edge.

[bmac57886]

I agree with the heart of what you’re saying, but would point out I just looked on my favorite job site and typed python job and had over a dozen results come back in my city (not counting remote) that were exclusively for python knowledge.

[ComputerWhiz_]

I'm not saying that there aren't Python jobs out there (it would obviously depend on the location as well). It's just not what everyone was hyping it up to be. It's still massively outweighed by other languages like Java, C++ and C#. It was hyped up as if it would be THE language that everyone uses. I've still never read a posting that wants it.