I strongly agree. I’ll take any article describing what “every” developer should do with a pinch of salt. A lot of developers are out there day in, day out, doing CRUD-y or UI-y work and have no need to set aside time to read a lengthy paper about LISP. Not that the paper is bad or not worthy, but the range of “developer” is vast these days.
I guess I’m talking about myself here too. I have no Computer Science training and can’t say I’ve ever felt like I need it. I could take the time to read an academic paper about the next 700 programming languages or I could read an introduction to iOS development with Swift. I know which one is most likely to help my career.
I've also been a developer for almost 10 years without any Computer Science training (aside from my college diploma). I've also felt the same way about not needing any further formal education up until a certain point.
That point is now, and it's partially out of boredom. I've worked with many languages, frameworks, libraries, patterns, and they're all starting to look the same. I've become a master of tools, able to reach for the right tool given a specific scenario, but I'm starting to find I'm lacking a sense of curiosity and depth.
Maybe without a strong foundational knowledge, we'll only ever be users of the tools, and never creators. I feel like I need to start giving back at some point in my career. Maybe it's time to start working on foundations.
> I have no Computer Science training and can’t say I’ve ever felt like I need it.
Did a CS degree (92-95); Database design + SQL has been the only thing properly relevant to my career* (and then only the theory side because the practical was Oracle embedded Pascal...)
Not relevant: Prolog, SML, electronic design, 68000 assembly, Pascal, processor design, compiler design, etc.
* some of them have been relevant in personal fun projects though
I guess I’m talking about myself here too. I have no Computer Science training and can’t say I’ve ever felt like I need it. I could take the time to read an academic paper about the next 700 programming languages or I could read an introduction to iOS development with Swift. I know which one is most likely to help my career.