I Will Never Graduate

As a young person, I was told to study hard, and I would do well. I can also remember that I believed that as I learned, I would become more competent, more able. Learning was supposed to be cumulative – it was supposed to built on itself. My friends graduated from university and went on to careers and stable jobs, or so they expected. The longer they continued in their careers, the more competent and knowledgeable they would become.

This has not been my experience in the field of software. I have grown in personal ways, but a kid coming out of school is learning Ruby On Rails just as I am. Not only am I in a cycle of constant learning, but I am often reading about things just to stay current. Often, I never use or apply these things. Many young people are better than I am in many areas because they acquired their skills in these areas at the same time I did.

There is even a expectation that on older person like me will know less. Most certainly, I am expected to think in stiff and antiquated ways. This puts pressure on me to keep learning to keep working. The pace of learning has never stopped or slowed down for me. It is the same.

This is the one difference between me and some of the younger people I run across. They embrace novelty, and that is their strength. In time, they will have to embrace or cope with change. That will be a different experience for them. Fewer people like rapid and constant change. People cling to their hard won competence and knowledge even as the rest of the world is telling them that it is becoming less relevant. They cling to their status. The pride of the young in their new found skill will be their downfall in these changing times.

I, for one, realize that I will never graduate. I will never arrive. Any status I gain based on expertise will be diminished as soon as the next big thing comes along. As a programmer, unless I create the next superduper programming language, I will never have laurels to rest on. (By the way, Java was the next superdupper programming language. Young people are excited about other languages now.)

On the one hand, this makes life exciting. I take pleasure in the change and the learning. I embrace the enthusiasm of the young. I also take secret pleasure in watching a young whippersnapper turn into a clued-out fuddy duddy, especially if the young whippersnapper has become arrogant. The confidence of youth quickly transforms itself into paternalism and condescension.

I was going to close here, but as soon as I used the word “paternalism” I wanted to find a more gender neutral word. I realized that the word “maternal” has a more positive connotation. Perhaps that is the attitude we need to foster: a maternalism, a nurturing of the young. It is important for older people to pass on what they know about coping with change just as they pass on technical skills. It is important for young people to get over the idea of arriving, or of graduating. The learning may never end. Nor should it.