Developers are often fiercely loyal to their preferred programming language. eBay engineer Ted Dzibua reminds us that serving the needs of the project is much more important.
Coffee picture from Shutterstock
Dzibua tells a detailed story about an encounter with a master bartender in Las Vegas who was just as happy making a basic rum and coke as an expensive and rare bourbon served with actual smoke as an accompaniment. The lesson he drew from it was that he had to stop being so precious about his language choices:
I know Java well enough, so I haven’t been resisting because of my skill set, I resisted Java because it’s enterprisey. Because I thought it was an inferior technology. Because I had a chip on my shoulder about technical superiority. That’s not mastery, that’s just being a prick, and I’m done with it.
Hit the link for the full tale; it’s worth reading.
Mastering the craft [Ted Dzibua via Business Insider]
Comments
4 responses to “Don’t Obsess Over Which Programming Language To Use”
The bottle of Pappy Van Winkle sitting on my whiskey shelf approves of this anecdote.
My mind approves of the sentiment in making the best Captain and Coke he can. Wise words.
Everyone who has ever put there hands to a keyboard with the intention to code is guilty of, at least once, having a stick up their arse in regards to their language/IDE/framework of choice. Usually because of something they read online/got told by whoever they’re learning from.
But at the end of the day, that’s a real sign of immaturity as a developer — once you realise that everything you use is just a tool, and the goal is to meet requirements, not do something in C/C++/Java/C#/Python… life becomes a hell of a lot easier.
Er.. While id say it probably is quite common.. I would disagree with this sentiment for any experienced dev who isn’t just maintaining a product..
Especially in consultancy, where time is money, it ALWAYS comes down to return on investment per project.
Which to me is part of the requirement. It’s when you start going “Hey, C++ is going to be used because I prefer it and I’m in charge” that you need to think about it.