This is the "z0mg it's Christmastime and have I really left so many of my goals for the year incomplete?!" edition of
Programming Quotables.
If you don't know - I don't like to have too many microposts on this blog (
me on twitter for that), so save them up as I run across them, and every once in a while I'll post a few of them. The idea is to post quotes about programming that have one or more of the
following attributes:
- I find funny
- I find asinine
- I find insightfully true
- And stand on their own, with little to no comment needed
It's up to you decide which category they fall in, if you care to. Anyway, here we go:
My first job primarily used Cold Fusion. When I joined AOL Time Warner I gave up Cold Fusion for PHP. When I joined IAG I gave up PHP for C#. And so on. As you can see, I've never been too tied to a language. I've always been most interested in learning and growing. I love jobs that help me improve my skills.
...
I prefer jobs that allow me to learn new things. Think of it as job security -- I shouldn't ever be out-of-date when it comes to technology experience. Think of it as an investment -- everything I learn creates a broader range of experience that I can leverage for future projects or jobs. Think of it as experimenting -- by trying many different solutions I may find ways to combine them and innovate.
Programming in C for the first time seems to be a chore. There are many details about your Code you need to keep track of. And C doesn't even lend you much of a hand when programming. There are no iterators, memory management is done manually, and handling strings correctly is akin to walking through a minefield with a hood over your head. While on fire. And being chased by a pack of wild dogs.
But then the question still stays: "what should one learn next?". Algorithms, data structures, complexity, math... Learn the core abstracts, ideas, and skills that are language independent, and that transfer from one syntax to another. Learn the ability to learn. When a new opportunity with new technology comes along, you should be able to get over the learning curve fairly quickly.
...
So lets drop this obsession with learning to say "hello world" (or some more complicated version of essentially the same) in every programming language one can name. Lets also drop the idea of finding "one language to rule them all; and retire". Once we put the Science back in Computer Science, it wouldn't matter which language you'll end up using.
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