Machine Learning Or Full Stack Development?

Written By John Sonmez

So, there comes a point where you need to make some decisions in your career and there are some points where you need to choose which path to follow. Machine Learning Or Full Stack Development?

In this video, I'll share with you how you should tackle the question of which programming path to follow. There is more to this question than we imagine and I think we should be aware of these nuances so that we can always make the right choices in our careers.

So… Machine Learning Or Full Stack Development? There's more to this questions than you know!

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Transcript Of The Video

John Sonmez: Hey what's up John Sonmez from SimpleProgrammer.com. So I got a question here about machine learning engineer or full stack developer. We're going to get into this in a minute, but before I do I wanted to take a moment to thank the sponsor for this YouTube channel, or this video, which is Hired.com. You can check them out and put a Hired.com/SimpleProgrammer and what you're going to find when you get there is an application. You fill out that application, you submit all your cool stuff, your GitHub profile, all the cool stuff you've done and your skills, and make sure you do a good job on that, and then what will happen, is if you're a good matchup, and not everyone is. Right? It depends on what customers, what companies that Hired has at the time, and where they are geographically, and where you are.

But if you do get into their system, it's pretty awesome because what will happen is that companies will actually reach out to you and give you offers for interviews, and they will include the salaries for the job with it. So that is a pretty good situation to be in. It can stop you from wasting a bunch time sending out all these resumes and going back and forth. I love the idea, that's why I was so excited when I talked to Hired about doing a sponsorship because they're doing some pretty cool stuff, and I'm all on board with that. And they're really cool guys too. So you know the whole company. I did an interview with them, and they're just an awesome company.

And that's not the way to choose your path in life. Okay? This is kind of critical stuff here. Like I could tell you, “Oh machine learning. That's it. I love machine learning,” or I could tell you, “Oh no full stack developer. You'll make a lot more money, it's a lot more fun. Full stack developer all the away. I got loads of reasons why full stack developer is what you want to do.” But that's my opinion. That's not the way to make choices that are going to affect your career and your life. You don't go out and ask people what they think is better. No offense, thanks for asking me the question, but I'm going to decline to answer specifically because I don't know. Because it depends on you.

And I really want … You know if you've been watching this channel for a while, if you haven't already click that subscribe button by the way. But one of the things that you'll see me say a lot on this channel is that you really got to not give a fuck what other people say. Okay. And what they think, and their opinions. I even did a video … I'll probably do a rehash of the video because I think this is so important, of ignoring feedback. Forget feedback, I don't care. Guess what? You guys don't like this video, I don't care. Get lost. It's fine. You know why? You know why that is?

Because I'm doing what I want to do. I'm doing this. I'm doing this to help people. But I'm doing it for me because this is what I have to share with the world. And if … And there has to be this matchup. It has to be what you want to do, and what's valuable to other people. And there is. And how do you know that? Well because I got 70,000 subscribers on this channel. Wow. Okay. You see what I'm saying? At least at the time of recording this video. Maybe it'll be 100,000 by the time that you watch this video. But my point is this. I'm doing what I want to do. People are responding. I'm seeing a response. So that's value. So that's why I'm ignoring feedback is because what I'm choosing, what lights me up, what I want to produce, right, is actually having results. And maybe there could be better results if I were a hack and did what other people wanted me to do. Maybe I could have better results.

But I'm getting results that make me happy. Okay. And so I'm going to keep on doing it. So that's the best of both worlds. So why am I saying this? Because it's the same thing here right? Maybe machine learning is going to make you more money. Maybe being a full stack developer's going to make you more money, or has a higher potential. But you got to figure out … Screw what other people say, what their opinions are. That's fine. You can get some wise council if you want, but don't take that too much to heart. Just hear it, and let it sink in and get some wisdom. But then when you make a decision, you feel in your heart what do you feel is the right thing for you?

Fuck what everyone else is saying, and you do that thing. That's how you make this choice here. Okay. I know this seems kind of silly between choosing two technologies, but this is a framework that you use for life because you've got to set your own course. You will be way more successful right. I mean I can speak from personal experience. Like I said, I've had limited amounts of success until I started doing this. Until I started saying, “You know what? I'm not going to cater to what people want. I'm going to deliver what I want to deliver, and that has value.” And that's the thing that's right.

So if you choose this path, right … If you could choose something that doesn't deliver any value to someone, but you love doing, that's fine. I mean playing World of Warcraft all day, that would be a lot of fun. That would be … It is a lot of fun. Believe me it is. I went on it when it first came out in beta. I went on like a 72 hour binge, right? But it doesn't create value for anyone. Right? So you're not going to get the … You see what I'm saying? So you got to look for this. You got to pick the thing that you want to do. You got to figure out how it's going to create value for other people by doing what you do, and then you got to check the results and say, “Okay. Did that actually result in something? Am I happy with that result? Did I make money? Did I get people watching it? Did I actually create value?” Right?

Because the way that you measure whether or not you've created value for people is how many people subscribe, or watch a video, or how many people pay you money. Right? And so that's what you got to do. So in this case, what do you want? Do you want to do machine learning? Is that something that appeals to you? Okay. You're not picking … Both these choices are fine. I'm not going to say … If you said like, “Should I be a ballerina or do machine learning?” If you'd like to be a ballerina, that's okay. But if you're looking at making some money, probably not the ballerina choice is … But again. Again. See there I'm going. You could listen to me, and who knows? You could be in like Swan Lake and just doing your ballerina thing, and you could be awesome. You could be making millions of dollars going on Broadway in your own solo performance, just doing your thing.

I don't know. You see what I'm saying? So ultimately you're going to have to make this choice, because you're going to have to live with this choice, and you are the one who's going to be doing this work. And you're going to have a lot more success if you're doing something that you love to do, not that you're going to love it all the time because hard work sucks. It will. Whatever you're doing you'll eventually hate. I promise you if someone pays you to do it, you'll eventually hate it. But you're going to have to do that day to day. So you got to make that choice and decide. And if you're able to put your heart into it, because you actually enjoy doing it, you have a much higher chances of success. Right?

It's really, really hard to become good at something that you hate. That wasn't your first choice. Okay. So think about that. And really don't worry about this kind of stuff. You got to be … Develop that ability to make your choices, to again taking counsel, taking information in, but to know in your heart what do you want to do, and make that choice, and to be willing to accept the consequences. Because that's a better way to live your life. Sometimes when you live your life by the way, this way, you're going to make wrong choices and bad things are going to happen. But it'll be your choices. You'll be … There's nothing worse … I'd rather make a bad choice, and then take responsibility for it and say, “I screwed up,” than to listen to someone else's advice. Oh. And that's a wrong choice. Oh.

And then you take the failure and you're like, “Man why'd I listen to that person? Oh,” or “Why didn't I listen to that person?” No. Instead I own every decision I make. So it's always me, and I grow and I learn, and I feel better that way. It's a better way to live your life honestly even though there'll be more ups and downs.

All right, thanks for the question. This is John Sonmez signing off of YouTube. I'll talk you next time. Make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven't already. Take care.