> I have to constantly step my game up to stay relevant
This doesn't strike me as the case in other skilled professions. A successful middle aged CPA, MD, lawyer, or finance exec often has the option of more or less coasting on accumulated relationships and prestige.
This idea that a skilled software engineer must always be training up on his own dime and time is really kind of strange, in the bigger picture.
I never looked at it that way but one could draw analogies to things like new techniques in medicine. Such as a new robotic operating mechanism or new ways to treat people. On the other hand CPAs seem to have had their work set in stone since people used tables and numbers, I feel for those guys. Lawyers probably have so much research to do I doubt they ever really stop learning (albeit it's charged to the client) .
But learning is probably what keeps me from getting bored. I will say though, if I have to learn another JS framework I'm going to === my eyes out.
This doesn't strike me as the case in other skilled professions. A successful middle aged CPA, MD, lawyer, or finance exec often has the option of more or less coasting on accumulated relationships and prestige.
This idea that a skilled software engineer must always be training up on his own dime and time is really kind of strange, in the bigger picture.