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Same thing I repeat again and again: There is a false cost assigned to learning a language. Developers are too unwilling to even try stepping beyond the boundar

Same thing I repeat again and again: There is a false cost assigned to learning a language. Developers are too unwilling to even try stepping beyond the boundaries of the first thing they learned. The cost is always lower than they may think, and the benefits far surpassing what they may think. We've got to work at showing developers those benefits early; it's as important to creating software effectively as any other engineer's basic toolkit.

mgkimsal 7y ago
> Developers are too unwilling to even try stepping beyond the boundaries of the first thing they learned. The cost is always lower than they may think, and the benefits far surpassing what they may think. and yet... almost every time I've come in to a project where developers got past those boundaries.... they inevitably recreated patterns/idioms from tech 1 in to tech 2, and make tech 2 horrifically bad, and made it even harder for anyone who actually knew tech 2 to come in to the project and help. adding other languages is more than just 'get over it' - without guidance from experienced people who can understand good/efficient ways to model the problem domains unique to a business idiomatically in the new tech, you're very likely adding even more technical debt that you won't even know about for months/years. And... IME, the "let's use new stack X" are moved on to another project or company by the time the technical debt is apparent to everyone.
Kye 7y ago
I suspect programming has something similar to Gear/Plugin Acquisition Syndrome in photography and music. It's easy to let tinkering with new toys stand in for doing the actual work of creating. At some point, you have to sit down and do the work with the tools you have if you want to get anything done. If I were to get serious about programming, I would use C# or Go because I found them the most accessible after trying lots of languages. There's nothing wrong with finding a niche.
- Fellshard 7y ago
  True, but I expect you to know which two or three /distinct/ tools you can work with effectively, and which situations they are most suitable for. Not only that, but knowing multiple languages has a multiplicative effect, massively expanding how you think of programming in all the languages you know, even the stable standbys like C#.

mgkimsal 7y ago

> Developers are too unwilling to even try stepping beyond the boundaries of the first thing they learned. The cost is always lower than they may think, and the benefits far surpassing what they may think. and yet... almost every time I've come in to a project where developers got past those boundaries.... they inevitably recreated patterns/idioms from tech 1 in to tech 2, and make tech 2 horrifically bad, and made it even harder for anyone who actually knew tech 2 to come in to the project and help. adding other languages is more than just 'get over it' - without guidance from experienced people who can understand good/efficient ways to model the problem domains unique to a business idiomatically in the new tech, you're very likely adding even more technical debt that you won't even know about for months/years. And... IME, the "let's use new stack X" are moved on to another project or company by the time the technical debt is apparent to everyone.

Kye 7y ago

I suspect programming has something similar to Gear/Plugin Acquisition Syndrome in photography and music. It's easy to let tinkering with new toys stand in for doing the actual work of creating. At some point, you have to sit down and do the work with the tools you have if you want to get anything done. If I were to get serious about programming, I would use C# or Go because I found them the most accessible after trying lots of languages. There's nothing wrong with finding a niche.

Fellshard 7y ago
True, but I expect you to know which two or three /distinct/ tools you can work with effectively, and which situations they are most suitable for. Not only that, but knowing multiple languages has a multiplicative effect, massively expanding how you think of programming in all the languages you know, even the stable standbys like C#.