(That’s what I renamed my good old electrokavalam blog to. However, I felt that it’s better to continue posting here rather than on blogspot.)
Who is this JVM Lover ? Well, I mean myself.
And I hope you are one too.
Being an software lover, I could expose myself to a good deal of the software engineering discourse over the past few years. What stands out the most to me, besides the actual content of those discussions, is simply just how busy this space is. Innovation is happening at a break-neck speed and change is incessant and new things are constantly coming out.
Frameworks, Tools, Libraries, Languages, Techniques, Methodologies – you name it – there is nothing constant in software. Like huge rivers that empty their heavy load of water into the sea, such is the feeling I get looking at the sea of software engineering.
Hence, it’s hardly ever possible to be contend with the tools and techniques that one already know; unless living in a closet.
While a lot can be said in critique of the churn that occurs, the forces driving it etc., I just feel that it’s simply the way innovation happens. It is a good thing overall.
However, from an individual’s (a person with a life) point of view, I think a certain perspective is needed to cope with such a dynamic environment without risking burn out.
I am talking about a way to keep one’s interest in software engineering without getting overwhelmed. In this post I am going to explain one such way, which I think I want to follow.
But first, it’s needed to understand how one may think about his own role in this big landscape. I think contributor is a good way to think about it; as opposed to a spectator.
Having something to contribute is probably the best way to be involved and remain so. While there are numerous ways to contribute to the bigger software community, I personally find sharing one’s expertise the most attractive.
And that leads to the question of what is expertise or more about how expertise comes ? Expertise comes through knowledge and experience. Internet is full of information and a keen mind can convert that into knowledge through study and diligent thought. However, that is not enough, experience matters. That gives context to the knowledge and develops intuition.
But experience takes time and focus.
This brings me to the final piece of the strategy am proposing here – focus. Focus is what we really need in this ever changing world. I am saying that everyone should focus on the same thing, but that, everyone should have one thing that they focus on. This way, each of us can develop expertise in an area and contribute that to the bigger community. In a nutshell, avoid the trap being jack of all, master of none.
So, what do I want to focus on ?
Now that’s the answer to what the new name of this blog is about – the JVM, short of the Java Virtual Machine.
To clarify I am not talking about the VM perse, but the ecosystem of languages and tools around it.
Being a platform that has stood the test of time over 20 years (not bad at all in the software world), I am quite impressed by how fertile a ground it has been for continuous innovation that continues even today. It has been able to absorb new ideas from other ecosystems and shows a good appetite to continue to do that.
Hence, I love the JVM and wish – May you outlast me.