HN frowns on novelty accounts and bot posting, but if they were allowed I would write a bot to post this link whenever someone mentions learning a new language quickly:
I’m not saying that a good programmer cannot become productive in a new language quickly for some definition of “productive,” but it seems thee is more than meets the eye when it comes to learning a new programming language.
I used to write “Can write LISP in any language” on my resumé. Then I discovered that those who knew Lisp well were afraid that I couldn’t, and those who didn’t know Lisp well were afraid that I would.
I used the concept of "a good hacker". That is a loose definition, that may mean different things to different people. I consider a good hacker someone that has passed the commonly know 10.000 hours of programming experience, and who has studied and experienced various different programming paradigms.
So it is opportune to make the clarification, and I think that I agree with your comment.
Comments
HN frowns on novelty accounts and bot posting, but if they were allowed I would write a bot to post this link whenever someone mentions learning a new language quickly:
http://norvig.com/21-days.html
I’m not saying that a good programmer cannot become productive in a new language quickly for some definition of “productive,” but it seems thee is more than meets the eye when it comes to learning a new programming language.
Comes back to the "you can write FORTRAN in any language" saying.
I used to write “Can write LISP in any language” on my resumé. Then I discovered that those who knew Lisp well were afraid that I couldn’t, and those who didn’t know Lisp well were afraid that I would.
I used the concept of "a good hacker". That is a loose definition, that may mean different things to different people. I consider a good hacker someone that has passed the commonly know 10.000 hours of programming experience, and who has studied and experienced various different programming paradigms.
So it is opportune to make the clarification, and I think that I agree with your comment.