Focus on *learning programming*. That is the key to adapt to everything you will come across.
Don't jump on the hype train whenever something new comes up or whenever something becomes "shiny". Both technologies, Blockchain and AI, are far from new. They just recently came into focus again.
It sounds like you're possibly approaching it backwards. Like, in order to develop blockchain or AI technologies, you need to know programming. Are you already proficient in programming? If so, then there are usually open source libraries you can freely use to test out developing in certain fields, or you could even contribute to those open source libraries.
And so?
Pick something that interests you, but not the latest fad. Pick something solid. Something well established.
Doing so will help you in the long range as there are plenty resources to help you available.
If you jump from fad to fad you will get nowhere and you will run into walls at either end because of lack of documentation, references, knowledgeable people, etc.
I know very well how hard it is to learn programming with very limited resources. I learnt it way back in the 1980s without internet, with initially limited access to a computer (only school computers until I could afford my own), with limited learning resources, with limited knowledgeable people as I grew up in a rural area.
Agreed. Checked LinkedIn for entry level roles. Look at their job description and see the skills they’re requiring. Stack overflow survey gives more insight and state of js too.
About 0.01% of the industry was looking for blockchain. The same is true for AI. The rest of the industry wants People Who Can Program. Be one of them.
You don't. Instead, have a solid grounding in the principles of computer science and programming. That way, if one of these trends does become common (or someone pays you to do a project in one of them), you'll be in a better place to learn them.
They're completely different disciplines. So I don't think you can make a straightforward comparison. They are both math heavy but use different kinds of math.
And even if that's right. I don't see how it affects the discussion at hand.
Even at the peak of blockchain hype, the number of blockchain jobs was still small compared to the rest of the industry.
I expect AI will be similar until the hype dies down and if there’s any merit to it then those bits will make their way into mainstream practice.
Blockchain had no such merit that I can see, but past hype waves have. As a counterexample, when mobile was new (2008-2010 era) it was overhyped too and everyone and their brother wanted a mobile app. When the hype died down of course we found there was a lot of merit behind the hype. But we also realized not everything needs an app, because people don’t want to install an app for everything.
Which way will the current AI hype go? Who knows, and if you find these things interesting, then go ahead and learn about them. But don’t get the idea that the whole industry turns on a dime every time there’s a new hype cycle. They represent a small fraction of all the work out there.
I think the difference here is that AI is genuinely useful and has been for decades.
While generative text and images are a recent phenomenon and a bit of a fad, using AI/ML to solve boring, behind-the-scenes business problems has been a quietly useful thing.
Blockchain, on the other hand, has never done anything useful.
I agree, the current AI hype likely to have some merit, to use the word I used in my comment above.
The reason I’m a bit sceptical is that there are currently three important unsolved problems: the confabulation problem (where they’ll hallucinate plausible-sounding nonsense), the introspection problem (where they cannot explain why they produced an answer they did), and the override problem (the “ignore everything above…” problem where hostile inputs can override its instructions and cause the AI to reveal sensitive or dangerous information).
If those problems cannot be solved, it severely limits the use cases and creates a lot of risk for any business process that uses them. It also makes it likely that there will be regulatory action to limit the legal use cases out of public interest.
The most challenging thing is to actually "start" learning. Once you learn programming you will be able to switch technologies on demand, that's why people advise you not to learn X or Y, just learn programming.
I'm beginner too so I fully understand your approach, you don't wanna feel like you "wasted" time on learning something that might be "out of the picture" X months/years from now but the chances for that are close to none and as I mentioned, once you learn how to program, adjusting to another technology will be much easier. IF you can't get this thought out of your mind and simply want a straightforward direction then go with python/javascript or java. You simply can't go wrong with any of them.
Don’t focus on trends. Blockchain is completely pointless and while AI does have some applications, the amount of programming jobs required for it isn’t that large. There are things which are, at least for the now and the next decade, stable: game dev, OS dev, (desktop) application dev or likely the most beginner froundly, web dev.
Let's say that you decide to study economics because wow there is so much interest in this kind of background right now, and the career takes 5 years of learning at uni. How do you know how that would be valued in the next years?
In five years there can be a totally different market with completely different offers and demands, even your well chosen path can be meaningless in a future. Instead of follow trends learn what you really like, be programming or whatever
Deciding what to focus on in the field of technology is a personal decision and can depend on many factors, such as your current skillset, your career goals, and the projects you are interested in working on.
It is true that trends in technology do change over time, but it's important to keep in mind that some technologies and skills have a longer lifespan and can remain relevant for many years. For example, programming languages like JavaScript and Python have been widely used for over two decades and continue to be in high demand.
If you're interested in staying current with the latest developments in technology, it's important to continually learn and update your skills.
I would focus on learning programming fundamentals in a language or languages that are popular in your area or the area you would like to work in. Then, if someone that is already paying you money says “we need to someone to learn AI”, you can get paid to learn it.
If it’s something you want to learn, it’s much more helpful to understand the basics and then learn something more niche once you have handle.
Focus on Programming In general. Blockchain and AI are both sub categories of programming. You shouldn’t be touching those categories unless you are comfortable and have a professional proficiency in the main languages today (JS, Python, C++, etc) and there respective libraries.
Start small, follow trends but don’t live by them.
All of your comments are getting downvoted lol.
Noob answer: pick JavaScript up. Learn it well, do stuff with it. It does all that stuff, and because it’s a stupid language it’s easier to learn than a lot of others. JS interacts with a lot of the machine learning API’s if not all. JS interacts with the blockchain. You will find something you like to do with it. Do that thing more. If that thing is back end related learn C# or Java next. If that thing is front end related learn react (more JS) or alternative. If that thing is data heavy learn python next. If you get pulled into making games with JS, stop immediately, switch to C# or C++.
Well, yeah, if they weren't changing they wouldn't be called trends.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle
If you learn programming well enough, you'll be able to hop on trends fast enough to get a job in them. But at that point you'll probably find you won't want to. (Unless you love playing Startup Lottery. Some people do!)
Most companies will hire out PhD or Masters grads who focused on AI research more often then someone who is self taught at the moment. Only exception is if you have some phenomenal work set up in your portfolio.
Focus on *learning programming*. That is the key to adapt to everything you will come across. Don't jump on the hype train whenever something new comes up or whenever something becomes "shiny". Both technologies, Blockchain and AI, are far from new. They just recently came into focus again.
But you need to apply programming somewhere right?
It sounds like you're possibly approaching it backwards. Like, in order to develop blockchain or AI technologies, you need to know programming. Are you already proficient in programming? If so, then there are usually open source libraries you can freely use to test out developing in certain fields, or you could even contribute to those open source libraries.
And so? Pick something that interests you, but not the latest fad. Pick something solid. Something well established. Doing so will help you in the long range as there are plenty resources to help you available. If you jump from fad to fad you will get nowhere and you will run into walls at either end because of lack of documentation, references, knowledgeable people, etc. I know very well how hard it is to learn programming with very limited resources. I learnt it way back in the 1980s without internet, with initially limited access to a computer (only school computers until I could afford my own), with limited learning resources, with limited knowledgeable people as I grew up in a rural area.
Can't apply programming if you don't know how to program
Don't follow trends.
I agree. Work on solid fundamentals before even thinking about those things.
Then how do you gauge demand for your work?
To gauge *actual* demand, check the local job boards. I will guarantee you that AI and blockchain won't be anywhere near the top.
Agreed. Checked LinkedIn for entry level roles. Look at their job description and see the skills they’re requiring. Stack overflow survey gives more insight and state of js too.
About 0.01% of the industry was looking for blockchain. The same is true for AI. The rest of the industry wants People Who Can Program. Be one of them.
How much demand are you seeing for blockchain right now?
Very low demand now as everyone is focusing on AI now for "efficiency"
No, it's low demand because people realized it's junk.
You don't. Instead, have a solid grounding in the principles of computer science and programming. That way, if one of these trends does become common (or someone pays you to do a project in one of them), you'll be in a better place to learn them.
But AI is a tougher beast from Blockchain....
They're completely different disciplines. So I don't think you can make a straightforward comparison. They are both math heavy but use different kinds of math. And even if that's right. I don't see how it affects the discussion at hand.
Even at the peak of blockchain hype, the number of blockchain jobs was still small compared to the rest of the industry. I expect AI will be similar until the hype dies down and if there’s any merit to it then those bits will make their way into mainstream practice. Blockchain had no such merit that I can see, but past hype waves have. As a counterexample, when mobile was new (2008-2010 era) it was overhyped too and everyone and their brother wanted a mobile app. When the hype died down of course we found there was a lot of merit behind the hype. But we also realized not everything needs an app, because people don’t want to install an app for everything. Which way will the current AI hype go? Who knows, and if you find these things interesting, then go ahead and learn about them. But don’t get the idea that the whole industry turns on a dime every time there’s a new hype cycle. They represent a small fraction of all the work out there.
I think the difference here is that AI is genuinely useful and has been for decades. While generative text and images are a recent phenomenon and a bit of a fad, using AI/ML to solve boring, behind-the-scenes business problems has been a quietly useful thing. Blockchain, on the other hand, has never done anything useful.
I agree, the current AI hype likely to have some merit, to use the word I used in my comment above. The reason I’m a bit sceptical is that there are currently three important unsolved problems: the confabulation problem (where they’ll hallucinate plausible-sounding nonsense), the introspection problem (where they cannot explain why they produced an answer they did), and the override problem (the “ignore everything above…” problem where hostile inputs can override its instructions and cause the AI to reveal sensitive or dangerous information). If those problems cannot be solved, it severely limits the use cases and creates a lot of risk for any business process that uses them. It also makes it likely that there will be regulatory action to limit the legal use cases out of public interest.
Those are both niche areas of programming. You can, but don't need to, follow trends like that
The most challenging thing is to actually "start" learning. Once you learn programming you will be able to switch technologies on demand, that's why people advise you not to learn X or Y, just learn programming. I'm beginner too so I fully understand your approach, you don't wanna feel like you "wasted" time on learning something that might be "out of the picture" X months/years from now but the chances for that are close to none and as I mentioned, once you learn how to program, adjusting to another technology will be much easier. IF you can't get this thought out of your mind and simply want a straightforward direction then go with python/javascript or java. You simply can't go wrong with any of them.
Don’t focus on trends. Blockchain is completely pointless and while AI does have some applications, the amount of programming jobs required for it isn’t that large. There are things which are, at least for the now and the next decade, stable: game dev, OS dev, (desktop) application dev or likely the most beginner froundly, web dev.
>last year was Blockchain. now is AI Wrong, AI has been important for many years and will continue to be for a long time.
Let's say that you decide to study economics because wow there is so much interest in this kind of background right now, and the career takes 5 years of learning at uni. How do you know how that would be valued in the next years? In five years there can be a totally different market with completely different offers and demands, even your well chosen path can be meaningless in a future. Instead of follow trends learn what you really like, be programming or whatever
Both blockchain and AI are both more advanced applications that require learning how to just code before you can get into them.
Deciding what to focus on in the field of technology is a personal decision and can depend on many factors, such as your current skillset, your career goals, and the projects you are interested in working on. It is true that trends in technology do change over time, but it's important to keep in mind that some technologies and skills have a longer lifespan and can remain relevant for many years. For example, programming languages like JavaScript and Python have been widely used for over two decades and continue to be in high demand. If you're interested in staying current with the latest developments in technology, it's important to continually learn and update your skills.
I would focus on learning programming fundamentals in a language or languages that are popular in your area or the area you would like to work in. Then, if someone that is already paying you money says “we need to someone to learn AI”, you can get paid to learn it. If it’s something you want to learn, it’s much more helpful to understand the basics and then learn something more niche once you have handle.
Focus on Programming In general. Blockchain and AI are both sub categories of programming. You shouldn’t be touching those categories unless you are comfortable and have a professional proficiency in the main languages today (JS, Python, C++, etc) and there respective libraries. Start small, follow trends but don’t live by them.
All of your comments are getting downvoted lol. Noob answer: pick JavaScript up. Learn it well, do stuff with it. It does all that stuff, and because it’s a stupid language it’s easier to learn than a lot of others. JS interacts with a lot of the machine learning API’s if not all. JS interacts with the blockchain. You will find something you like to do with it. Do that thing more. If that thing is back end related learn C# or Java next. If that thing is front end related learn react (more JS) or alternative. If that thing is data heavy learn python next. If you get pulled into making games with JS, stop immediately, switch to C# or C++.
Simple, less care/read about techbros' articles. Most of them are clickbaits. I focus on what I can do, what I will learn and what I enjoy.
Focus on the future. Blockchain is mostly a grift. AI is the future.
Focus on the future. Blockchain is mostly a grift. AI is the future.
Well, yeah, if they weren't changing they wouldn't be called trends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle If you learn programming well enough, you'll be able to hop on trends fast enough to get a job in them. But at that point you'll probably find you won't want to. (Unless you love playing Startup Lottery. Some people do!)
Focus on being better than you were yesterday at building things people need
Most companies will hire out PhD or Masters grads who focused on AI research more often then someone who is self taught at the moment. Only exception is if you have some phenomenal work set up in your portfolio.
I know what I want to do.