It's one of those questions that sounds simple but hits different the longer you've been coding.
When most of us started, we didn't really choose a stack. We fell into one.
Maybe it was the tutorial you stumbled across. Maybe it was what your bootcamp taught. Maybe it was just whatever was hiring the most in your city at the time.
But this can be the question:
If you wiped the slate clean today with everything you know now, would you make the same call?
A few things worth thinking about:
- The AI/ML wave has made Python feel almost unavoidable
- Rust keeps showing up in conversations it didn't used to
- JavaScript is still everywhere, but the fatigue is real
- Some devs are quietly moving toward simplicity over hype
The stack you start with shapes more than just your syntax. It shapes your thinking, your community, and the kind of problems you get excited about.
There's no wrong answer here. Some would double down. Some would completely pivot. Both are valid.
So, same stack or a fresh start?
Drop your pick in the comments. Would love to see where the community lands on this. 👇
Top comments (2)
I started with some obscure PHP/Python + MySQL web devt; but it really started taking off with Rails.
Currently I believe stronger types are important, and AI-readiness is as well. While Python has the latter it certainly does not have the first.
For my latest project I settled on Kotlin (JVM) + Postgres. It compiles reasonably fast, has quite a strong type system, reads almost like Ruby (using type inference: much less type-noise than Java), and AI writes it with ease (there's a lot of Kotlin out there now that it's Android perferred language).
I also favor using libraries (like http4k i use now) over frameworks: less magic, more "write the setup in code". And using Postgres' features heavily instead of treating the db as dumb-storage (I've spend way too much time fighting ORMs, so I now just write SQL, or, have AI write my SQL).
My library stack get constantly monitored: less libraries, less to learn, less that can go wrong...
Wrt JS: when I do not need the interactivity of an SPA, I prefer an SSR app any day. So I keep JS to a minimum: Alpine.js is what I use lately to achieve that (it used to be jQuery when I got started with web dev).
Nice work 👏, thanks for your input.