You are not your tools

A few weeks ago, I was on the JS Party podcast chatting about the rise and fall of JS libraries.

Host Kevin Ball and I talked about the ebb and flow of tools, and how the tools we use today likely won’t be the tools that we’re using to build for the web in another five to ten years. I see a shift away from heavy client-side JavaScript, and back to pre-rendered HTML with a sprinkling of JS for interactivity.

A lot of interesting conversations have happened around the episode, but one of the strangest things has been how defensive a subset of people get about the notion that the tools they use today won’t be the tools they use a decade from now, as if it’s some sort of personal attack.

You are not the tools that you use to build for the web.

If you’ve been doing this long enough, you know that tools come and ago, but the fundamental skills stick around forever. That doesn’t mean learning tools is a bad thing. They can help you work faster and easier.

But a strong foundation of core skills will help ride through those waves with ease and comfort.