For someone like me that got out when the pool was small around 2006, there is no incentive to jump back in. I mean yes, if I closed my eyes and jumped I would probably adjust after a while. But why jump in the JS pool when I can swim in the open sea? :)I was right there with you.
If you can find a way to retain your career and not have to worry, maybe it's not worth it.
But for me, I came precipitously close to having no marketable dev skills, by accident. I loved gamedev, and I spent my life learning it. It's what got me into programming.
Most cities don't have gamedev shops. And if you're not at a gamedev shop, you're not really a gamedev. Yeah you can try your hand at indie stuff, but that's roulette. Wanna be forced to move to whichever city has a studio? Be a gamedev.
So... Backing out of that career trajectory led to an uncomfortable realization: I'd amassed a bunch of low-level skills, had a deep understanding of Unix/C, and could implement https://lmax-exchange.github.io/disruptor/ without breaking a sweat. (Not merely use it; implement it.)
None of that translates into dollars. If you show up to a recruiter, they don't know what to do with you. There are literally hundreds of Rails gigs.
One interview went like this: They sat me down, opened up postgres, and said "Accomplish these goals." The goals were simple things like write SQL statements to query for certain types of users, or join data together.
I never had any reason to learn any of that. I knew that I could learn it if I needed to. I understood conceptually what joins are, why to use them, and what to avoid and why. The "why" is the crucial ingredient, and I naively thought that would protect me.
No... It's not fun when you have to sheepishly admit in front of three engineers that you have no idea how to write those SQL queries.
It was the same deal with Rails. Ditto for JS. Eventually I went through 5 interviews and struck out on all 5, in a row.
That's deep shit. When you start worrying about paying the rent, you're not in a happy position.
The way out of this mess, and not to end up in it, is to own it. Embrace all the shit. Become Elvis of code. Literally throw in the kitchen sink just because you haven't tried it out yet and this new kitchen sink might help you.
This story might not seem too relatable, and you might feel like your career is impervious. But a wise person once said that we overestimate the impact of years, and underestimate the impact of decades. "One decade" is so powerful that it's hard to overstate how much the world changes during that time frame. Are you absolutely certain you can get by without swimming in that pool that gives you the heebie jeebies?
Let go. Once you start swimming a few laps, it's not so bad. And in my case, I discovered I kinda like it. You're not supposed to like it, but it really is kinda fun. What other career would get to play with an endless box of legos?