Can You Catch Up With Technology?

MmmmJoel asks: "I'm currently a junior in college and am considering volunteering with the Peace Corps after graduation. Being in the computer field, I'm worried that the pace of technology may make it extremely challenging to catch up after a two-year absence. How hard is it to be completely isolated from technology for two years and come back strong? Is getting a job more difficult?"

Comments

Some thoughts

[scotpurl]

1. It doesn't change that fast. (it seems to, but it's still C, perl, and HTML on the back end)

2. You'll be playing catch-up whether you're isolated, or in the thick of it. Staying up to date is a choice few choose to make. Most are happy to be stale.

3. It's about life and living. Go. Have fun. I know several folks who have done the Peace Corps gig, and it was a life-altering experience. Experience the bio-mass. See other cultures. You can Geek the rest of your life, but few of us have the chance to spend serious time overseas, and fewer still of us take those chances.

100% Right

[FoxIVX]

Take a look at the last 2 years. Not the 2 before that, or the 2 that are coming, just that blip on the radar we called 1998-2000. Not that much changed. PCs still run on on intel-based 386 variant chips. HTML is still the dominant language on the web. TCP/IP is still running the internet, and ethernet isn't going anywhere. Every other change is just superficial, and wont take that long to catch up on. All the big things that would take a long time to learn about probably will happen slowly, and you'd still have to learn them anways.

Worst case, you miss out on IPv6 and have to come back and sit down with a book and learn about it. Best case, you miss out on IPv6, and they come out with IPv8 before you get back, saving you from learing the middle-step.

And yes, think of the learning experience. I'm not in a position where I can uproot myself and see the world. I'm envious of your opportunity. Well, make the descision that works best for you, and go with what feels right. Just dont make the descision based on some unfeeling bits of copper and electrical signals that will be here when you get back.

-Josh

Who says you have to be isolated from technology?

[blameless]

Amazon ships books anywhere. Even to the Amazon.

A few thoughts

[OlympicSponsor]

What makes you think you know about technology NOW? When I graduated from college I didn't know diddly...about technology. I knew about programming. Programming hasn't changed in the last 2 years so don't worry about it.

However, if you were dumb and got some time-limited degree like "IT Systems" or something then maybe you WILL get behind in 2 years with no exposure to tech. So why not do your volunteering with an organization that needs techs? Surely the Peace Corp runs a website or a database or something that needs looking after.

If you can't find such an org (or the existing orgs don't need you for that) then you have two choices: 1) don't volunteer 2) realize that volunteering requires sacrifice--that's not just a word, it's a real thing. It means you have to give something up.
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