As a teacher and speaker one of the questions I’m often asked is which language/technique/etc should an aspiring developer learn first to get a job as fast as possible. Most of these folks are ambitious and capable but, in following many over the course of the years, I find few ever become great at what they do simply because they aspire to be a “super generalist,” that is, a developer who can write any code for any project on any timetable without question. What they aspire to is not to be a successful developer but to imitate, often in only months to a year or two, the careers of mentors and teachers who while having been in the industry for many more years are not up to the standards the student is expecting themselves. Continue Reading →