I struggle with this topic myself. I understand this article wasn't for me, so I apologize for hijacking. Pressure for what I would call "extreme specialization", at least in any STEM field is very high. I would think this is mostly particular to higher education areas (college educated workforce).
For instance, the amount of job listings that I see for "Senior React + Tailwind developer" or "Spring Boot" (4-6 years experience usually) etc. Highly specialized frameworks. These specialized requirements are nearly 180/200 job postings I view per day. While it does mean someone without college experience spent a few years drilling down specifically on React or ASP.NET or whatever. It takes years of education and self education to even understand the most basic of technology UNDER the stack you specialize in. I'm saying it's impossible by the age of, say 24, to understand how a computer actually works from your high level code to assembly language (maybe even a little hardware understanding) AND have professional development skills, leadership skills, and product/design skills, AND have 4-6 years experience in that SINGULAR specialization. I just don't believe that can be done unless you're extremely autistic.
But this is it, possibly why my software job hunt is going poorly, I don't specialize in any modern frameworks in fact, I despise most of them and don't keep it a secret.
Just one, highly specific example, I'm sure you and I could have the same discussion in product, logistics, or automotive etc. I think this is even becoming a thing in construction if you don't want to be a laborer all your life. You better start getting good at CAD for example, then specialize in CAD, then specialize in idk "structure" or lasers or wood, and even further. I'm sure @The Beave could share the same stories about gross specialization in the mechanical/fab/engineering field.
My friends have definitely required their wives bring home an income, but I don't think they really care what it is, although there is a lot of what I'll call "equality propaganda" that leaked into my generation. Men get to say, I will not marry you unless you provide some portion of the income. That a massive other topic.
Men are only valuable to a society so long as they can provide resources and/or protection, that's the only option we were given. I may be willing to change my mind on this in the future, but I don't see any other way around that.
i also have this problem though i choose #golang
blockchain tends to help and go isn't abominably unknown, and whenever someone needs middleware or such it's the go-to
for systems programming its all rust, rust, rust, and yes, you guessed it, rust... since 2021 this is the new thing
i think you need to have a second string, and for me that is "blockchain" which is a proxy for my knowledge of distributed systems in general... i understand your love of your C but it's really hard to get serious C work out there these days and Go is a really natural move to expand a bit, you'll feel confident enough in a few days to pretend you are good at writing middlewares and they won't know the difference and the truth be told they almost never find experience, and you have quite some so actually don't be put off by the bullshit
just don't waste your time learning javascript if you are a systems programmer
worst case, you do some Rust tutorials and wing it
I mean, I didn't really have the goal of being a developer, programmer or whatever. I did cars (and other small business stuff) as a my primary source of income until this year. A software developer isn't really a career goal for me, it was a stepping stone, because I started taking a liking to the fast pace of development and there looked to be so much money involved. Turns out its an over bloated and highly competitive market, which requires... you guessed it, specialization to compete.
well, you have a specialization, low level/embedded systems programming
there is work out there, just go back to what you can get easier with your resume now and build out your transition
it just may take a lot longer to get the more interesting low level stuff in the bag so just spend a bit of time on it when you are off duty
i have been doing that with nostr, even though it has been a big part of my main gig, making useful tools builds reputation and stuff you can point to when the interview needs some spice
reality is that even though most jobs ask for oodles of experience, reality is they accept anyone with adjacent skills
like, right this minute, my specialised knowledge about nostr signers, nos2x and alby are coming into play... the project i've got into the periphery of is a social network that runs on a smart contract blockchain... and there is no go-to tool for them to do stuff like what we have with browser extension detached signers with permissions categories and automatic signing, with budgets
as i see it, they just need to fork their nearby onchain web wallet extension and add a "window" function in it with a signing request that has a category field and the tx hash to sign on, and it needs to have a common set of signature purposes and done
that's my task for the next few days, because i've proven myself competent at learning stuff fast and specialised in social/cryptography stuff
also, to be clear, my current paid gig has got me learning a cut down toy version of rust that is dedicated to smart contracts
why i'm feeling ok about that is because what they removed from rust to make this language Move is all the things that are wrong with Rust in a substantial way - the objects, most of the Option, almost all of the dependencies, most of the complicated types (only unsigned integers, imagine!) and i sorta understand the logic of the hand holding the GC stuff in rust
ah i didn't notice the commentary about women
ya know i have to think about that, it's kinda important if i'm gonna have one around...
i kinda like the idea of having some deep conversations about the subject of "inside work" - the benefits of being a housewife and being able to sometimes ask for outrageous things and on a fairly regular, and unpredictable basis, being treated like a princess, with all the trimmings, fancy carriage once in a while, some special place, a few days where she does nothing but stare at the sea and get massaged by nice chinese masseuses and soak in mineral spas and such
i mean, idk how to explain it exactly, womans are not supposed to be employees
employees are slaves, wives get much better treatment, they are princesses... and heroes...