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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/27/2013 11:26 AM, Leam Hall
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:526D30B0.2020508@gmail.com" type="cite">Be the
one that folks know "Hey, he does {web/os/financial/db}
programming and we need something done." If you build your
reputation in a certain domain then your ability to find work in
that domain becomes easier. There are millions of programming
tasks that need doing and a lot of them are funded. It becomes a
matter of building your cred and finding those tasks you are
suited for.
</blockquote>
<br>
To take this one step further: Ignore programming languages <i>completely</i>
and be a <i>programmer</i>.<br>
<br>
What I mean by that is analgous to what some people mean by the
difference between "writing in a language" and "programming into a
langauge".<br>
<br>
Anyone can write straight and unmaintainable code in any language.<br>
<br>
Anyone can write elegant and maintainable code in (nearly) any
language, assuming that the language is reasonable enough.<br>
<br>
Anyone can fix things like PHP's problems by doing it differently.
Facebook attempted to do so though they opted out of that and went
for (yet another) VM approach instead.<br>
<br>
If you know any three programming languages well, you can learn any
other programming language pretty easily, discounting the standard
library for that language (or environment). Those aren't typically
too hard to learn, though, as they all pretty much expose the same
types of functionality.<br>
<br>
If you can write an algorithm in C, and write that same algorithm in
Python, BASIC or JavaScript, then you're a programmer and language
no longer is relevant—the knowledge that you have in the domain of
programming and the knowledge that you have in the real problem
domain reigns supreme.<br>
<br>
But the key here is that you need to know all the cogs in the system
that you're working with.<br>
<br>
When someone asks me if I'll take a project to implement $FOO, I
tell them that I will get back to them on that if it is a $FOO that
I'm not familiar with. I take a week or two, depending on how long
is required for me to do so, and then tell them if (a) I can take
it, (b) I won't take it, or (c) I need more time. Why? Because
everyone comes to me with different problems—sometimes <i>very</i>
different problems—and I refuse to take on work that would be better
performed by someone else. *shrug*<br>
<br>
— Mike<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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<td> Michael B. Trausch<br>
<br>
President, <strong>Naunet Corporation</strong><br>
☎ (678) 287-0693 x130 or (855) NAUNET-1 x130<br>
FAX: (678) 783-7843<br>
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