I've been coding Javascript, Ruby and Go almost everyday for the past few months and I'm just wondering if in the long run it hurts my chances of learning expertise in either of them. I clearly feel the "switches" I have to make daily.
Plus, is the "jack of all trades, master of none" problem a real and significant one?
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Top comments (24)
I think it will help more than hurt. Sometimes when you’re too caught up in one language you sometimes mistake that language’s best practices for programming best practices.
Too much context switching could hurt your productivity but I wouldn’t worry about long term problems.
Do you think in this day and age absolute expertise in one language or stack is something we should all strive for? Or can that be substituted with this cafeteria style approach altogether?
Neither.
Just like with human languages -- learning other languages just about only benefits you. Even 30 minutes of trying a new language can be beneficial -- you don't have to be an expert or become one.
I don't think it's possible or even if were that it would be useful. Going deep into something, sure, striving to learn as much as you can, absolutely -- but I think that as soon as You Know It All, you've failed.
Looks like I found someone else who is like me.
Like you, I have been juggling 3 languages, C#, Java and Python. About getting in depth knowledge in one language, I will agree with you and say that if competing against smart people who are working on it continuosly for years, we may lose. But far more important, I believe, is having am idea of what we are actually doing when we write something. For example my colleagues with similar experience as mine but experienced only in C#, think in terms of only that language. When I think of a solution, what I see in generic terms, my colleagues see as frameworks and methods. On top of that, working in multiple languages and encountering problems, helps us gain universal knowledge about computer systems, the way programming languages work and a wholistic picture which people who have worked in a single language for long, are more likely to lack.
Besides, after getting old, when you or me go for the position of a technology architect, I am optimistic that the generic idea I am gaining today is going to help me do my job better then.
I think you could compare it to being polyglot. You can speak other languages but you have your native language (your main skill).
So, I think problem solving in different languages is actually a really good thing. Some times you will find solutions to problems that were struggling you in other languages. You can make more confortable those "switches" adapting your dev environment to your needs.
Also don't forget that, at the end of the day, programming languages are just tools for problem solving, you can apply every design pattern to almost every language, any data structure concept, etc. You want to improve your problem solving skills, syntax and docs can be learned/read more fast and easy.
I liked doing this for a long time, beside juggling between back-end I also did Unity,Desktop, Mobile ..
There are definitely benefits for doing this, one of them is speed of assimilating a new language, after 5-6 languages I learned Core Java in 10 days or so.
But I reached a threshold in my career where I'm starting to see the downsides. The two major areas affected by this, in my experience and fields are:
Newer programming languages are all converging and becoming so similar that in a few years it probably won't matter anyway x,D
Seriously though, knowing more than one programming language is extremely valuable. Many people come out of college only really knowing one programming language, but in the world of software development it's normal for professionals to know more than just one language.
I like learning new languages in my free time because it helps keep my mind sharp while also expanding my skillset.
I agree with Ben on the best practices thing. Also, as somebody who wrote C, C++, and C# at the same time (and sometimes compiled into the same binary), I can say programming like that really forces you to understand how the languages work and how it all ties into how computers work. It may not be useful for most high level programmers, but it's good insight nonetheless.
It is good insight. I guess it also depends on how far apart the languages are syntactically and otherwise.
The "too many languages" thing is really more a problem if you haven't created very solid programming skills in one language. It's a lot easier to language-bounce when you know that a given thing should be doable in a language (because you're able to do it in another language) ...At which point, Google becomes your best buddy because you know the capability has to be there and you've enough background to know how to run a query to find it.
Knowing a specific language inside-and-out also helps you better analyze "which one of these other languages make achieving 'X' task-set easier" (since you know that a given language ought to do something and you have more solid baseline against which to measure "easier"). If you're not solid somewhere, though, you risk floundering in each of the languages you're bouncing across.
All that aside, it's a near lock that your style-conformance will suffer. But there's enough CI plugins out there to help with that problem.
I've always compared it to being multilingual, especially if you use and learn them in tandem. It's somewhat similar to what research has shown about bilingual children:
I'm not only proficient in multiple programming languages, but I'm currently learning multiple languages at once, while working in those I already know. This means that, in any given week, I'm using all of C++, Python, C, Java, SQL, BASH, and FORTRAN. What I'm finding is, although I sometimes feel the "switch," I am acquiring them more quickly than when I learned one language at a time (VB.NET, Python). I would go so far as to say that the paradigm shifts and differences in pattern are keeping me from ever building "the box" that we always have to think outside of. I can cook up a dozen possible solutions to a problem in my mind, and then select the best one based on the language and tools I have.
Also, remember that speed is a side-effect of proficiency. If you keep switching between languages often enough, regularly using as many of them as you reasonably can, the "switches" will become less pronounced, and the high-level problem solving skills more instinctual. Keep at it!
P.S. I'm a Pluralsight-verified expert in C++, and approaching the same in Python. I'm quite literally "Jack-of-all-trades, master of some."
I love working with different languages (Javascript, PHP and Perl), but from my recent job search I noticed that it doesn't help at all. People expect you to be expert in the language they use and don't really value your other experience that much.
One thing I've done when I am having issues with literal codeswitching is change highlighting schemes and/or editors based on language -- often it can be just enough of a shift to help the rest of your brain follow suit.