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I hate to be so negative, but... ugh... This reads like a rant written by someone with very little professional technical experience, and it's just such a poor
by benjamincburns 13y ago
I hate to be so negative, but... ugh... This reads like a rant written by someone with very little professional technical experience, and it's just such a poor analogy.
Yes, there are a few tools that are as interchangeable as various types of wood, and there are some weird dogmas out there analogous to using rocks as hammers. But these are exceptions, not the rule.
Languages aren't interchangeable. Sure, any half decent programmer can pick up any sane language and be hacking something together in a day or two. However, most languages have idioms and subtle usage patterns that take far more time to learn than you'd estimate. You've mastered first principles? Awesome. Ever heard of an "unknown unknown?" This kind of thinking will have you tripping over them constantly. The best part is it will always look like you're tripping over your own shadow.
And guess what? Tools do have meaningful impact on the way you perform your work, and even how you think about problems. Sometimes these tools are old and at first they look a bit like swinging a rock, but the people around you with more experience are probably using them for a reason. Go find out what it is.
Actually, that brings about a larger point. If you find yourself agreeing strongly with the OP, maybe you need to force yourself to work through a different set of languages/frameworks/platforms/tools/philosophies for a month or so and test the idea that it's "toe-may-toe/toe-mah-toe."
- rorrr2 13y ago> Languages aren't interchangeable I disagree. If we're talking about building websites, there's a dozen of languages that you can pick from and they are all fine for making a website of almost any complexity. Yes, you personally will (likely) prefer one language over every other. That doesn't mean anything. There are really really profitable websites out there written in PHP, Java, C++, Ruby, C++, C#, Pascal, Python, Go, LISP, Javascript, etc.
- benjamincburns 13y agoMaybe I should've qualified that better. Languages can be interchangeable in purpose, but not in process. By that I mean that sure, I can write a web backend in pretty much any language I choose, but the quality of that backend code and the rapidity with which I can deliver it will heavily correlate with the amount of experience I have with the language in question.
- rabino 13y agoI agree, but men... a joke is a joke, and I found this one funny.
- benjamincburns 13y agoOh, don't get me wrong... I see the element of humor, especially when you imagine that the interviewer is the worst kind of dishonest bullshit-artist-wannabe recruiter from some very nontechnical background, and the job description is for a 'top 50 company with millions of users.' It's just the line of reasoning it promotes that makes me cringe. "I don't understand why X is different to work with than Y, but I know that X and Y can be used to accomplish the same goals so they must be interchangeable." Now imagine that being said by someone who is somehow responsible for setting your deadlines and for whether or not you get paid. I've dealt with that too many times to find it funny anymore.
- tnuc 13y agoYou're right. They should be discussing the brand of the hammer.
- benjamincburns 13y agoPsh, there's no need to discuss it. Anyone who's ever framed knows it's best to swing an Estwing! :-)