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Future-proof your skills and escape the tech hamster wheel with Linux, Python, vim & git (LPvg) including NixOS, Jupyter, FastHTML and an AI stack to resist obsolescence.

Future-proof Your Tech Skills

Future-proof your tech skills by mastering a few cherry picked fundamentials that apply in the AI Age. Hear the argument.

AI makes it feel like we’re facing unprecedented change, but we’ve lived through the industrial, atomic, and information ages. Humanity adapts. It’s not the first time we’ve had to change the way we live and work. Join me as I, a 50-something, musters enough neuroplasticity to adapt and thrive while avoiding the hamster wheel of tech, and mastering a small set of versatile, timeless tools. On this site, I focus on:

  • Linux, Python, vim & git: Mastering the future-proof LPvg minimum subplatform
  • Re-acquiring Math Skills: Picking up where my 1970s K-12 education let me down
  • Staying at the Top of My Field: Protecting my earning capacity as things change
  • The minimal tool-chain for AI: Expanding LPvg to include vector databases, etc.
graph TD A[Tech Skills] --> B{Choose Path} B -->|Hamster Wheel| C[Constant Churn] B -->|Future-proof| D[LPvg Stack] C --> E[Vendor Lock-in] C --> F[Subscription Fees] C --> G[Rapid Obsolescence] D --> H[Linux] D --> I[Python] D --> J[vim] D --> K[git] D --> L[Nix/NixOS] H --> M[Fundamental Skills] I --> M J --> M K --> M L --> N[Reproducible Environments] M --> O[Resist Obsolescence] N --> O O --> P[Long-term Viability]

It’s Text-files All The Way Down

It’s all about text files and pushing bits around. Even after the rise of AI, this fundamental concept will persist. User interfaces may change, and barriers for entry will lower for non-programmers, but interacting with AIs won’t absolve you from learning to code. It just makes initial sketching easier. However, complex problems remain complex.

While Jensen Huang says you won’t have to learn to code and calls Python weird, he admits that the first time you talk to AI will be in English, but the second time it can give you the Python code. See the contradiction? You won’t need to learn coding unless you want to do second-pass refinements. English isn’t reliable enough to build automated systems around, and Python has become the lingua franca of tech.

The Hamster Wheel of Faddish Tech

Tech fads reset every 5 to 10 years. If you’re on that hamster wheel, such as with modern JavaScript frameworks, you go from Angular to React to Vue to Svelte, constantly relearning, retraining, and either migrating or abandoning old code bases. Generally, the concept of a “framework” is to blame. But Python hit a fundamental level and IS the framework. Even when you use a framework on top of Python, such as Flask, FastAPI, or FastHTML, switching is much easier. Python interfaces remain remarkably stable over the years, allowing your intuition and muscle memory to improve.

The new breed of AI text-editors emphasizes this point. Your text editor is where you spend a significant amount of time. It’s even more essential than your bed or chair because it becomes ingrained in your fingers through muscle memory and shortcuts. Switching text editors can be more disruptive than switching programming languages. Think VSCode is here forever? It’s already under attack from Cursor. As with PFE, Notepad++, TextMate, Sublime Text, Atom, and Brackets, it will come and go. Vim (vi, nvim, etc.), the one all the others try to emulate, will be the only safe harbor for your fingers.

Future-Proofing with LPvg Skills

If you develop muscle memory from years of practice in this slightly less-than-sexiest of tech (at least as a secondary tech-stack you know), then you won’t become obsolete. LPvg skills may not be as trendy or seemingly valuable as the current fad, but they will keep your skills relevant and provide an alternative to popular approaches, offering some freedom from vendor lock-in.

No matter how jazzed up or convenient power-tools become, you’ll notice an underlying system of Linux, Python, vim, and git that even they rely on. Windows and Mac strive to be Linux for the developer. All text editors offer a vim emulation mode. When’s the last time Python hasn’t been the default answer AIs want to give you (except for Claude artifacts). And git is… well, git. I’m sort of advocating the pee in the pool of tech. These are the 80/20-rule “good enough” tools that have become free, time-tested and are just accessible enough for the average person.

Lessons from the Amiga: Loving the Abstractions

It’s not always smooth sailing. The carpet can be pulled out from under you, no matter how well you prepare. The idea is to make smart choices, so a good deal of what you know and your hard-won muscle memory and habits remain applicable.

I fell in love with the Amiga Computer some 30 years ago and have been trying to recapture that magic ever since. I’ve concluded that you shouldn’t fall in love with your hardware or the particulars of your system. Instead, if you can love some of the higher-level abstractions that cut across time, space, and problem domains, you’ll be okay.