david at cantrell.org.uk
Tue Nov 27 12:33:00 GMT 2012
On 27/11/2012 07:05, Peter Sergeant wrote:
> Conveniently buying a car and trying out a new programming language share
> are different in at least the outlay of thousands of
> dollars/pounds/whatever. Perhaps this is a reason to avoid car analogies
> when talking about programming languages.
Thousands of pounds to buy a new car whose controls you already know, or
thousands of hours to become as competent in a new language as you
already are in another. They look pretty similar to me, both require a
large outlay of a scarce resource.
I don't go out randomly buying new cars because I alread have one that
works well. Well, I don't go randomly learning new languages because I
already have one that works well.
I'll buy a new car if:
* my needs change and my current car no longer does what I need; or
* I suddenly have a lot of spare money and want a new toy
I'll learn a new language if:
* my needs change and my current language of choice doesn't do what I
* I suddenly have a lot of spare time
Until then, no matter how much I might want to learn Clojure or
Smalltalk or whatever, realistically, I ain't gonna, because I have
little free time and plenty of stuff to already fill it with.
David Cantrell | even more awesome than a panda-fur coat
More information about the london.pm