Re: Java GOOD -- Fire BAD

["Perry E. Metzger" <address@hidden>]

Christopher Barber <cbarber@curl.com> writes:
> Plus you are less likely to get fired for picking the dominant tools,
> even if they are not the best ones for the job, especially when those
> tools often are adequate for the job.

Maybe my experience is skewed. I've worked for myself most of my adult
life, as a consultant and as the founder of a startup.

However, although I have about as bleak an attitude towards the
corporate world as you can get (which is why I don't take full time
jobs for other people), somehow I've never found myself thinking "gee,
the only way to avoid problems is to pick the tool everyone's heard of".

If your political problems are so bad you have to worry about things
like that, likely simple geek ineptitude with company politics will
screw you regardless of what programming language you pick. If your
political problems aren't that bad, people will care more that you
delivered when you needed to than how you did it.

I'd say that most of you pushing the "safe" way of doing things
probably aren't being safe in any case. There is no safety in the
corporate world. Instead of living in fear, do your job the way you
think is right, and be prepared to change jobs. Hell, I've had no
corporate "safety" in forever and yet I seem to be living a perfectly
fine life. Quit worrying, start living.

So if you think Lisp is the right thing, quit worrying about being
fired and use Lisp. If you do get fired in spite of delivering on time
and under budget, consider that your next employer can't be any bigger
of a jackass than the one that fired you for doing your job well, so
the next job can't be any worse.

Perry