Usually, people learn languages + tools to start or further a career as a programmer, engineer, etc. Otherwise, people typically stick to what is easily available / understandable to them (e.g., smartphone apps, consumer applications and OS's, typically no programming).
Both these options are fine, but I don't think there needs to be a divide between technologists and non-technologists, programmers and non-programmers. Time will blur and destroy this divide, like it did with previous soft technologies writing + money (breakingsmart.com/en/season-1/a-…).
I'm not taking either path right now. Learning to use technologies like shells, text editors, and programming languages has been pleasurable and useful for me. I don't want to focus or define my career around them, though.
I'm not an expert in any of the technologies I use daily, and I don't want to be. I'm far more interested in learning and using technologies as an expansion of my skill-set, adding value to domains and projects that may or may not seem obviously related to technology.
I learn and use technologies to build tools, projects, and companies that help people. Great talk about this from @geminiimatt at @strangeloop_stl: "To Serve the People" thestrangeloop.com/2017/to-serve-…
Here are are some examples from my work over the last couple of years, of blurring the lines between "high tech" and "no tech."
As an internet citizen and entrepreneur, I've launched basic static websites (including a @TiddlyWiki) several times with SSH + rsync.
As an internet citizen and entrepreneur, I've launched basic static websites (including a @TiddlyWiki) several times with SSH + rsync.
When I wrote a book, Maple Seeds (monasticacademy.com/seeds), I used technologies like #Emacs, #WordPress, Regexes, #Pandoc, #GIMP. These allowed my collaborator @soryuforall to spend his time on the content.
In my work for @Brightmind_app, I dive in and out of regular use of "high tech" and other domains like writing, editing, marketing, etc. This frees up work from the founders, programmmers, designers and other people who are likely bottlenecks.
As a meditation teacher, I built an app in #Clojure to help my students establish a daily practice that's fun and powerful. It keeps track of which techniques they know and creates custom "workout routines." It's kind of like @Freeletics but for meditation.
I'm curious to see what technologies I learn next, and how they'll help me create projects that help people. A recent email exchange with @_wilfredh and this post have given me some great ideas: begriffs.com/posts/2017-04-…
Which technologies and skills can you learn to leverage your background, situation + current projects, and dramatically increase your output + impact?
