This is a good observation. I'm in my late 50s and more and more I keep getting the feeling "I've seen this (or something very similar) before" whether having to do with software development trends, politics, fashions etc. That old adage about there being nothing new under the sun didn't make much sense to me when I was younger, but now it seems to often ring true.
One of the things that I like about this analogy is that it also points out one of the pitfalls as we age. As our string gets longer, we aren't as good as picking up the higher frequency vibrations, so we risk assuming they aren't there at all.
A failure mode I see of some older developers is assuming there's nothing new under the sun and nothing worth learning, which I don't think is the case. I think it just gets harder for us to see those short term trends.
The analogy might be a bit weak on the short side: Higher frequency means that the thing comes and goes within a short amount of time. Did I really need to learn a technology that was only in vogue for a few years?
Another analogy I've heard (I think it was from Ward Cunningham) is that technology comes in waves. You don't need to catch every wave - trying to do so will tire you out. A good surfer learns to be choosy about the waves they catch and that comes with experience.
> Higher frequency means that the thing comes and goes within a short amount of time.
Not every change is cyclic, so you risk being unable to respond quickly to fast permanent changes if you don't acknowledge a change until a sufficient amount of time has passed.
