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I feel like this has been misunderstood for years. I note this paragraph: But what I’m aiming for there is not technology that’s “boring” the way CSPAN is bori

I feel like this has been misunderstood for years. I note this paragraph: But what I’m aiming for there is not technology that’s “boring” the way CSPAN is boring. I mean that it’s boring in the sense that it’s well understood. It’s bad, but you know why it’s bad. You can list all of the main ways it will let you down. I understand F# more than I understand PHP. By the articles definition, F# is 'boring', and choosing to do something in PHP would be using up an innovation token.

hooverd 3y ago
If it works you and/or your org, then yeah.
joshuahutt 3y ago
Another thing to keep in mind is the size of the candidate pool. There's a lot fewer F# devs than PHP. Can make hiring a bit trickier.
- worthless-trash 3y ago
  And I was under the impression that coders were thought of as replaceable cogs in a machine, one just as good as the next.
- jpgvm 3y ago
  This is almost never a bad thing. It means you have fewer people to compete with when advertising a position and the people that use a niche technology generally have more passion for their craft.
  - dukeyukey 3y ago
    Although it also delays hiring - I work for a startup using Kotlin, and we've had maybe three candidates _ever_ who have used Kotlin beyond hobby projects. And I was one of them!
- photonbeam 3y ago
  You might get less volume, but you can use this as an advantage
- pharmakom 3y ago
  Average quality is so much higher for certain languages (Clojure and OCaml also come to mind). I don’t mind a 5% pool size when 95% of the alternative can’t build things.
K0SM0S 3y ago
"Boring" is subjective, and even objectively defined it can't be measured. Therefore yes IMHO, F# qualifies as 'boring' for you. However, unless you're an isolated entity (e.g., SOHO) or fully remote, your business environment also factors into that equation. Node.js might be 'boring' in the USA but anecdotal (read: edgy) in entire subcontinents. Economically speaking, a 'boring' tech stack is one that generates the least 'friction' for its devs. (friction may be construed as added cost beyond base material requirements, eg. time or complexity added by bureaucracy, or cognitive toll induced by steep-n-quirky learning curves, as opposed to the fastest road to MVP / RC / shipping).

hooverd 3y ago

If it works you and/or your org, then yeah.

joshuahutt 3y ago

Another thing to keep in mind is the size of the candidate pool. There's a lot fewer F# devs than PHP. Can make hiring a bit trickier.

worthless-trash 3y ago
And I was under the impression that coders were thought of as replaceable cogs in a machine, one just as good as the next.
jpgvm 3y ago
This is almost never a bad thing. It means you have fewer people to compete with when advertising a position and the people that use a niche technology generally have more passion for their craft.
- dukeyukey 3y ago
  Although it also delays hiring - I work for a startup using Kotlin, and we've had maybe three candidates _ever_ who have used Kotlin beyond hobby projects. And I was one of them!
photonbeam 3y ago
You might get less volume, but you can use this as an advantage
pharmakom 3y ago
Average quality is so much higher for certain languages (Clojure and OCaml also come to mind). I don’t mind a 5% pool size when 95% of the alternative can’t build things.

K0SM0S 3y ago

"Boring" is subjective, and even objectively defined it can't be measured. Therefore yes IMHO, F# qualifies as 'boring' for you. However, unless you're an isolated entity (e.g., SOHO) or fully remote, your business environment also factors into that equation. Node.js might be 'boring' in the USA but anecdotal (read: edgy) in entire subcontinents. Economically speaking, a 'boring' tech stack is one that generates the least 'friction' for its devs. (friction may be construed as added cost beyond base material requirements, eg. time or complexity added by bureaucracy, or cognitive toll induced by steep-n-quirky learning curves, as opposed to the fastest road to MVP / RC / shipping).