Okay, this is a terrible list of things. I like GraphQL! I like Web Assembly! I… think web components are neat! But if you want to maximize the probability you are an employed software developer in 2028, learning GraphQL is a bad idea.

I mean, it’s a better idea than like, learning Angular. But valuable skills are Lindy goods; the trick is not to identify ones that are just about to come into vogue but the ones so prevalent that they’ve transcended fashion. At an object-level perspective (which I think is dumb: you should not be emphasizing technologies over architecture!), that would be C++ or build systems.

But at a non-object level perspective, every software developer needs to:

  1. Communicate extremely well to technical and non-technical colleagues
  2. Pattern match

That’s it! Those are the two most valuable skills and the ones least likely to be automated out of existence. Take a writing class and start doing crosswords.

(Alternatively, you could just learn COBOL. There is a small and insanely profitable market for COBOL engineers and it is one that presumably will not die for another generation or two.)

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