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> I can learn a new one in a couple weeks. To play devil's (or manager's) advocate - have you ever crunched the numbers on what it takes to pay you for a coupl

> I can learn a new one in a couple weeks. To play devil's (or manager's) advocate - have you ever crunched the numbers on what it takes to pay you for a couple of weeks? That's not a trivial investment, especially considering the risk that you just thought you could learn a new language in a couple of weeks but were wrong.

zeveb 8y ago
Sure, but you also have to weigh that against what it takes to pay people to develop the wrong architecture at the wrong time, and the opportunity cost to the company as a whole to be saddled with those bad decisions. That's not trivial, either. (although I agree with the sibling comment — one doesn't really learn most languages in a few weeks)
- scarface74 8y ago
  Well let me tell you the story about some older experienced “infrastructure consultants” who thought that AWS was just like on prem infrastructure, did a lift and shift, moved my former company “to the cloud” and ended up costing more because they thought they had “learned AWS”. Architecture and processes that was fine for one environment was horrible for the other. In development terms, you can write FORTRAN in any language. Let’s not talk about the one Java developer who thought he could pick up C in two or three weeks. It was ugly.
grimjack00 8y ago
But during that time, they're not just learning the new language, they're also learning your environment, applications, and tools, which they have to spend anyway. In my opinion, that could accelerate their learning of the language, by seeing it used "for real", rather than in a more restricted tutorial context.
erikpukinskis 8y ago
Every job I've ever worked I felt I produced more cash value for the owners than I took. I'm actually quite proud of that fact. It's important to me, and it's one of the things I think about all the time as I'm making decisions on how to work.

zeveb 8y ago

Sure, but you also have to weigh that against what it takes to pay people to develop the wrong architecture at the wrong time, and the opportunity cost to the company as a whole to be saddled with those bad decisions. That's not trivial, either. (although I agree with the sibling comment — one doesn't really learn most languages in a few weeks)

scarface74 8y ago
Well let me tell you the story about some older experienced “infrastructure consultants” who thought that AWS was just like on prem infrastructure, did a lift and shift, moved my former company “to the cloud” and ended up costing more because they thought they had “learned AWS”. Architecture and processes that was fine for one environment was horrible for the other. In development terms, you can write FORTRAN in any language. Let’s not talk about the one Java developer who thought he could pick up C in two or three weeks. It was ugly.

grimjack00 8y ago

But during that time, they're not just learning the new language, they're also learning your environment, applications, and tools, which they have to spend anyway. In my opinion, that could accelerate their learning of the language, by seeing it used "for real", rather than in a more restricted tutorial context.

erikpukinskis 8y ago

Every job I've ever worked I felt I produced more cash value for the owners than I took. I'm actually quite proud of that fact. It's important to me, and it's one of the things I think about all the time as I'm making decisions on how to work.