Polytech Careerism

Room 1

Starting with the ‘domain-specific language’ movement, and bolstered by the Pragmatic Programmers’ suggestion that programmers should learn a new language every year, the notion of ‘polyglot programming’ became something of a critics’ darling when talking about career paths. But somewhere along the way, it feels like the original intent has been lost, and the focus has shifted to ‘learn to program in as many languages as possible’. If you’re a software developer, and you’re currently fluent in one language, are you doomed to irrelevancy? Is it actually better to be a ‘jack-of-all-languages, master of none’, or is there some kind of happy medium in between? And if so, how do you tell when you’re in it?

In this talk, a polyglot, polycrepido and polypraeclusio programmer will talk about his experiences living across multiple languages, platforms and storage systems. It’s not all been a bed of roses, you’ll find, but there are advantages, up to a point. More to the point, by the end of the conversation, you’ll have a better idea of where you want to fit on the ‘polytechnical’ continuum, and how to make the necessary steps to get there.