3 ms·
> I (and it turns out a lot of other people) used to use "do they code in Python?" as a heuristic for "are they a smart self motivated programmer" Really? It's
by bmitc 5y ago
> I (and it turns out a lot of other people) used to use "do they code in Python?" as a heuristic for "are they a smart self motivated programmer"
Really? It's like asking if something is in the middle of a bell curve, getting an affirmative, and then treating that like an outlier.
- bcrosby95 5y agoThis quote was from almost 20 years ago. Python wasn't that popular in the early 00s, although it wasn't exactly obscure. At the very least, the school I went to in the early 00s didn't have any classes that used Python. And none of my friends learned it from their schools either. The language exposure I got was Java, C, C++, Prolog, Scheme, Perl, Fortran, and ASM. That includes AI and programming paradigms classes. Nowadays, Python wouldn't be the bar you use.
- cultofmetatron 5y agoThats where "used to" makes a huge difference. I remember when the industry standard was to use c++ or java. Using a language like python meant that you were "edgy" or "hip." This was back when Paul Graham really started pushing for acceptance of "hacker" languages (like common lisp or python) when ycombinator was just getting started. He did A lot to increase acceptance of languages outside c,c++, java Now that python is mainstream, other languages stand in to say "I like to learn languages for reasons other than earning a paycheck" examples coming to my mind include Haskell, rust or elixir.