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I've noticed that programmers tend to become more interested in functional programming over the duration of their careers. I think this is because, as a paradig

I've noticed that programmers tend to become more interested in functional programming over the duration of their careers. I think this is because, as a paradigm, FP solves problems that only experienced programmers realize they have. I'm not sure what the age distribution of working programmers is, but I bet the median is in the low 30's at this point, which is when you start being interested in FP in a real way. The other side of the coin is that there is tremendous "practical momentum" in software that is collected in the mass of code written in non-FP ways. Experienced programmers are usually expected to fix the symptoms, not cure the disease. Clever people might slip in some functional ideas here and there, but you're almost always better off learning the nuts-and-bolts of integrating Lucene with your Jetty app than you are learning Clojure.

bojo 11y ago
Very well said on both accounts.
pmarreck 11y ago
> as a paradigm, FP solves problems that only experienced programmers realize they have This is exactly what I've been saying... and it's the essence of the "FP non-adoption problem." I came to FP because I became frustrated with classes of bugs that appeared over and over again in OO (Ruby, in my case) but which seem to plague FP code much less. In essence, I came to reduce labor/increase productivity; it's "laziness/impatience/hubris" all over again. One indicator that I was "naturally" coming to FP is that I noticed I was writing Ruby code in a very functional style. I say "naturally" because 1) it made it easier to test 2) it reduced spaghetti code and dependencies 3) it made it more modular 4) it reduced side effects and bug generation. And all of these worked together to just make better code, period. Then I came across Elixir (http://elixir-lang.org/ http://elixir-lang.org/) and lo and behold, now I can't wait to find work in this shiny new FP language. If most people in a career came to prefer a certain paradigm after 10-20 years in that career, shouldn't everyone in that career be taking a serious look at it?
the_cat_kittles 11y ago
beautifully put. the first part is a specific case of a more general pattern i see in myself and others, where an older more experienced person does something in a way i think is silly, then i see the wisdom in it later. i think tech is, in general, ridiculously dismissive of experience. not too controversial an opinion i know, but i think it bears repeating.

bojo 11y ago

Very well said on both accounts.

pmarreck 11y ago

> as a paradigm, FP solves problems that only experienced programmers realize they have This is exactly what I've been saying... and it's the essence of the "FP non-adoption problem." I came to FP because I became frustrated with classes of bugs that appeared over and over again in OO (Ruby, in my case) but which seem to plague FP code much less. In essence, I came to reduce labor/increase productivity; it's "laziness/impatience/hubris" all over again. One indicator that I was "naturally" coming to FP is that I noticed I was writing Ruby code in a very functional style. I say "naturally" because 1) it made it easier to test 2) it reduced spaghetti code and dependencies 3) it made it more modular 4) it reduced side effects and bug generation. And all of these worked together to just make better code, period. Then I came across Elixir (http://elixir-lang.org/ http://elixir-lang.org/) and lo and behold, now I can't wait to find work in this shiny new FP language. If most people in a career came to prefer a certain paradigm after 10-20 years in that career, shouldn't everyone in that career be taking a serious look at it?

the_cat_kittles 11y ago

beautifully put. the first part is a specific case of a more general pattern i see in myself and others, where an older more experienced person does something in a way i think is silly, then i see the wisdom in it later. i think tech is, in general, ridiculously dismissive of experience. not too controversial an opinion i know, but i think it bears repeating.