Today, I thought I should spend some time reading about Rust and understanding how it works. While going through the documentation, I came across an article titled Everything You Need to Know About Rust. I checked its publication date and hesitated for a moment before reading it. It was nearly four years old, and somehow, that made it feel outdated to me.
I think this is an effect of AI. Somewhere along the way, we've developed the mindset that whatever we learn today needs to be as recent as possible to remain relevant in a world where AI and other technologies are evolving so rapidly.
Earlier, when we came across something relevant to what we were looking for, we were happy to explore it. It didn't really matter how old the resource was unless it was perhaps eight or nine years old. Today, anything more than a year old somehow feels outdated.
As AI has increased the rate at which code can be produced, it has also increased the volume of things being created that engineers are expected to explore, understand, and eventually master. Mastering a skill takes at least a year or sometimes even a year and a half. But by the time you get there, three or four more things have already been released, and suddenly, you get this false sense that you're falling behind.
It's a strange cycle. You spend so much time trying to keep up that you barely get the chance to appreciate how much you've actually learned. And perhaps the most interesting part is that this feeling isn't unique to you or me. It's something almost everyone in the industry is experiencing.
We're all caught in this void of constantly trying to stay relevant, wondering whether we're learning enough, learning the right things, or already falling behind. And the truth is, it sometimes feels like it's just us, when in reality, it's almost everyone.