No offense, but you are living in a kind of unfortunate corner of "industry".
Where I am sitting, you absolutely have 10 years (or more) to give toward a specific cause, and the path of the software developer is one of lifelong improvement.
Stuff like "the rate at which tools are changing" doesn't matter too much, because that stuff is just surface-level knowledge, not deep knowledge.
I am 43, and have much to do yet; if you are telling me I am due for retirement, I suggest you have a very warped view of the world.
This is why I got out of areas of webdev etc that don't value deeper knowledge. I can't say how much more satisfying it is to be learning stuff that is useful for 10 years instead of the webdev framework of the day/month/year.
webdev requires deep knowledge, it just may be a kind of knowledge you aren't interested in. Placing more value in your own pet interests is more than a little condescending.
Deep knowledge of what? The way different browsers render things?
All of the Web dev I've been involved in is pretty straight forward stuff to manage records in a database or make it easier to interact with the records on a browser.
The only thing remotely complex was 3d rendering. Perhaps I have a narrow view of what is considered web dev now.
"Webdev" is not fundamentally any different from any other kind of development that involves a client and server component. It just happens to be served in a web browser. You need the same underlying knowledge as for other (common) types of software development.
It certainly can. But it feels like a lot of the Web dev scene is people chasing their tails around writing yet another JavaScript library that does the same thing as one they're replacing but with slightly different syntax.
>>I am 43, and have much to do yet; if you are telling me I am due for retirement, I suggest you have a very warped view of the world.
I didn't mean to say that. Everybody has individual choices, and I respect yours.
And not all of us would like to code when we are 50+. Personally I would like to retire early to take time off for other things. This is entirely a personal perspective, and might change from person to person.
Where I am sitting, you absolutely have 10 years (or more) to give toward a specific cause, and the path of the software developer is one of lifelong improvement.
Stuff like "the rate at which tools are changing" doesn't matter too much, because that stuff is just surface-level knowledge, not deep knowledge.
I am 43, and have much to do yet; if you are telling me I am due for retirement, I suggest you have a very warped view of the world.