Don’t Learn Any New Programing Skills Without Reading This!

All of us are familiar with the insane pace the programing world lives in, and in which a programmer can "die" in (metaphorically speaking) if he (or she) does not keep up.
Scott Hackett has a really good take on this problem and I quote

Learn to write well. [*]

He expands and says

Technologies come and go. Seven or so years ago, I felt like I was completely on top of my game when it came to programming technology, at least in the Microsoft world. I had a very deep understanding of COM and ATL, thanks to Chris Sells, Brent Rector and Richard Grimes, and I coupled that with VB6 on the front end. This was a really potent combination and I thought I’d be working with that for years and years. But, as with most technical skills, it didn’t last long… .Net came along a year later, ATL became outdated and VB6 just disappeared into the sunset. Now that I’ve mastered C#, I find that I haven’t even touched the new stuff in .Net 3.5. The point is, no matter what technology you learn, with very few exceptions, it will disappear or be overshadowed by newer technologies (and probably sooner than later).

Writing skills will last you a lifetime, though. You will always benefit from it, regardless of what language or technology your use, or whether you’re even a programmer or not. Good writing skills are universal and will never be replaced.

this is a summation of his thoughts in a nutshell.
I think he really makes some good points so for more of his thoughts read on