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Yeah. My armchair analysis is that more flexible languages tend to attract smarter people, because they have a higher cap on how much your codebase can benefit

by _bxg1 8y ago

Yeah. My armchair analysis is that more flexible languages tend to attract smarter people, because they have a higher cap on how much your codebase can benefit from cleverness. Unfortunately those smarter people tend to over-estimate their own cleverness, and trying to take away someone's dynamic language features tends to be analogous to trying to take away Americans' guns. Complex JavaScript codebases used to mostly be this way, but in recent years the JavaScript community has seen a huge influx of new, inexperienced programmers. There are obvious downsides to this, but one upside is that they don't have the pretense of being able to do everything perfectly without help, making them less resistant to things like TypeScript.

AdeptusAquinas 8y ago
Being very careful not to start a flamewar, my armchair analysis is the opposite: JS has seen a large influx of serious backend developers, who generally have no time for silly arguments against static typing.
- geoelectric 8y ago
  My guess is it's some of both, really. There's the old saw about levels of SWE expertise: * Beginner: doesn't know much and knows it * Intermediate: knows a lot, hasn't lived with the consequences * Expert: knows a lot, including when not to use what they know The two comments here seem to be articulating the community shifting between I->B and I->E respectively. I think it's safe to say we have both a maturing developer base and a huge influx of newbies. That intermediate "look what I can do!" stage still exists, probably as much as ever, but is being professionally tempered by the caution inherent in the other two cohorts. The Intermediate stage is the most fun to watch, though, and probably a lot of what drives innovation. The coolest projects come from people who ostensibly should've known better than to try that thing.

by _bxg1 8y ago

AdeptusAquinas 8y ago

Being very careful not to start a flamewar, my armchair analysis is the opposite: JS has seen a large influx of serious backend developers, who generally have no time for silly arguments against static typing.

geoelectric 8y ago
My guess is it's some of both, really. There's the old saw about levels of SWE expertise: * Beginner: doesn't know much and knows it * Intermediate: knows a lot, hasn't lived with the consequences * Expert: knows a lot, including when not to use what they know The two comments here seem to be articulating the community shifting between I->B and I->E respectively. I think it's safe to say we have both a maturing developer base and a huge influx of newbies. That intermediate "look what I can do!" stage still exists, probably as much as ever, but is being professionally tempered by the caution inherent in the other two cohorts. The Intermediate stage is the most fun to watch, though, and probably a lot of what drives innovation. The coolest projects come from people who ostensibly should've known better than to try that thing.