Have you felt like almost each article or video that pops up in your feed has some new terminology, brand, or name that you’ve never heard of? Soundbars, earbuds, induction cookers, GOAT, OLED, keylights, vtubers, OBS, DaVinci Resolve, Node.js, Docker, CI/CD, the Agile process, non-relational database, cloud gaming, raytracing… You get the point.
Pretty sure we’ve all been there but how about if upon reading or watching them, it feels like they’ve existed since time began and you’re the only one who doesn’t know what they are or the only one who hasn’t been using them like “duh?” Speaking as a tech enthusiast at the least, it feels so unfair how the world we’re familiar with is pacing along like a prancing pony singing “Let It Go” when in fact it’s actually a mustang racing against not just other horses, but cheetahs, falcons, sharks, and maybe even the freaking speed of light.
Those who know me know that I am a mishmash (mess?) of so many things: programming, video editing, motion graphics, streaming, gaming, martial arts, music production, among others. Over the past 4 years, I’ve learned how to:
- organize esports tournaments
- create stream overlays
- optimize broadcast audio for streaming
- use the numpad notation in fighting games
- use Node.js for various streaming requirements
- use Streamlabs and then Lioranboard/SAMMI and Streamer.bot Twitch chat bots
- program with Lua
- create scripts for OBS
- use GitHub for various projects
- dive back into C# and Python programming
- implement and somehow understand more of multithreading
- dig into Protobuf
- attempt MySQL database replication
- dabble into DaVinci Resolve’s Fusion module
- and more
That was listed chronologically. And over the past 14 months, I’ve started using VS Code (finally!) and learned:
- React
- SvelteKit
- Next.js
- TailwindCSS
- PostCSS
- Prisma
- serverless computing
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- Docker
- Notion
- differentiate virtual machines from containerize systems
- deploy serverless systems and websites through GitHub
- and more
This list includes a special mention for Svelte because it was the first time I heard about it when I did so in January 2023 for a project with a client. This one was listed according to proficiency. Is this article starting to read like a job application? Maybe it is.
But despite all I’ve learned, I still feel left behind when I see articles and videos like AI and GPT prompts, Rust, . And WTF are Scala, Flutter, tmux, ServiceNOW, Solidity, harem, rizz, INFJ, and closures?? I know a lot of people who are looking for that last item but I’m (probably) not talking about that; it’s related to JavaScript. Granted, I’m (already) 42 years old and people keep on saying age shouldn’t be an issue in learning, but I still feel so overwhelmed especially when it comes to employment requirements. It’s like DNA matching: it’s almost impossible to match a person to a job which has so many specific requirements. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments or in my Discord: sidestreamnetwork.net/discord
As an aside, this personal site of mine has transformed a number of times over the past 20 years; from a wallpaper gallery (hello, Geocities), to a personal blog, to a portfolio, to a dev stack playground, and now into a place for my tech tutorials and an outlet for my personal tech opinions with this post being the first. And if you’re reading this, I would like to thank you just for doing so. With that, I hope you have a Happy New Year!
Leave a Reply