> [A]side from that, the application code itself was so hard to understand that I was seriously considering whether I was cut out for professional software deve

> [A]side from that, the application code itself was so hard to understand that I was seriously considering whether I was cut out for professional software development. It was just impossible to tell where things were defined, where data was coming from, when things were actually executing, etc. If the enormous pile of Ruby projects that I and the folks I work with at $DAYJOB had been the things I was required to work on and maintain at my first dayjob, I would have (no joke) left the field to go become a lawyer. I'm so, so, so glad that I started off with C++ and got to work at a couple of C++ shops which got me to understand in my bones the importance of good tests and comprehensible-to-a-mere-mortal code. > ...there absolutely is a difference between what the average Clojure programmer will write and what the average Java programmer will write. Oh yeah, definitely. After being worn down by the many years I've burned at my current position, I've become VERY skeptical of the "Let's use $LANGUAGE_OR_TOOL because it will make it easy to hire!" argument. The quality of the stuff that the average user of that tool produces matters A TON.