Web development: where are we, and where are we going?

What if the fundamental web development skills you have today will be obsolete tomorrow? This talk explains the predictable cycle of tech evolution.

#1about 8 minutes

A model for how web development technology evolves

Technology evolves through a predictable cycle of experimentation, commoditization, consolidation, and mass adoption driven by economics and developer boredom.

#2about 6 minutes

Historical examples of abstraction in web development

The history of the web from Apache and PHP to the LAMP stack and WordPress demonstrates a consistent pattern of abstracting away lower-level concerns.

#3about 5 minutes

The rise of modern frameworks and cloud platforms

Frameworks like Rails and jQuery, along with platforms like AWS and GitHub, further abstracted development and infrastructure, accelerating the cycle of change.

#4about 5 minutes

Current technologies in the competition phase

Serverless computing, Jamstack platforms like Netlify, and the React framework are currently in the intense competition and consolidation phase of the technology cycle.

#5about 5 minutes

The future is abstracting away code with components

The next evolution in web development will involve abstracting away code itself through visual, component-based editors that allow building websites without writing HTML or React.

#6about 2 minutes

Navigating your career in a component-driven future

Developers facing this future can choose to specialize in building core components, adapt to building with visual tools, or create the next generation of frameworks.