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OH MY GOD, MY TEACHER DOES NOT TEACH MY FAVORITE LANGUAGE!

I've seen a lot of rants about teachers who use an outdated language, or don't accept the preferred framework or library of the ranter, or even force students to use a technology or even worse an OS they don't prefer.

Whats with that attitude?

I absolutely encourage young people to learn technology in their free time and it absolutely helps at building a career and become good at programming. I don't think being around 18 and never having worked in a real job is the time to select "the most superior language and technology".

Actually, that time is never.

Technology is evolving all the time and different tech evolves in different paths for different purposes. Get rid of the idea, that there is a "best" and get rid of the idea, that you will always be able to work with what you think is best.

If you're really really really awesome, you can chose to do what you like most. Not awesome as in "i learned programming in my free time, now i'm better than my programming-for-beginners-course teacher" but awesome as in "start my own company and can afford to only take the jobs i feel like doing", that awesome. Most likely, you're not (yet).

In the real world, you will very likely sometimes be required to work with technology you don't prefer. Maybe with something you think is really bad. Probably, it's not that bad. More likely, you read it on the internet from someone whose self-image is based on on loving TechA and hating TechB. A lot of much hated technology is at least okay for it's intended use. Maybe not the most pleasant time you will ever have, but no reason to jump out of the window. Hey, and if you get used to it, you may even start to like it. At least, learn to retain some dignity when confronted with things you don't like.

You can still think that one thing is better than another, but if you make a huge drama out of it, you just make it harder for yourself. The best programmer is the one who get's shit done, not the one with the saltiest tears.

Comments
  • 10
    But where is the rant in devRant if we can't rant about techs and OSes? Students mostly never had a boss or anything related to it!
  • 8
    if i could ++ you more i would.

    Last time i checked "most" of us around here are developers.
    it shouldn't matter the language, or the system its on, its all just code at the end of the day.
  • 2
    Awesome
  • 5
    That can't be more true. Back in university the most important lesson I got was not being a fanboy when it comes to professional matters and keep an open mind when it comes to it. It took some time to get used to it, but trap questions like "Would you prefer X over Y technology" and us kiddies going with the most popular just to be bashed by the professor and replying the correct answer is "IT DEPENDS!" (yes, that angry)... I lost my trail of thought, so I'm stopping here. :-/
  • 6
    @Qaldim The most important thing about university is THIS. You grow up and learn how to think.

    I used to be that guy too in high school. "Why are we learning Visual Basic 6 if .net with C# is better?? Stupid teacher!1!!"
    Turns out, you're not learning *a language*... You're learning *programming* in general.

    (In hindsight she was actually a stupid teacher, but that's another story)
  • 3
    @Pizza Haha, well studying Computer Science was very enlightening for me, even though I was more eager for programming. But I discovered other things that also piqued my curiosity. University is learning to learn in general, especially in the technology field.
  • 2
    @Qaldim exactly!! That's my story XD

    At the time I got into CS thinking "I like programming and I'm good at it, going to learn more programming".

    Well, now, for me programming has become almost boring πŸ˜… there is a lot of awesome stuff beyond mere "programming".
  • 3
    but in the competition of programming languages, C WinsπŸ˜‰
  • 3
    @calmyourtities I see what you did there... 😏
  • 2
    @insanealec The problem is at universities most professors aren't in touch with industry practices. They are academics. They are good at writing papers, paraphrasing, know some basic programming and read. When young people go to university, they expect they will become programming masters, learn all the trendy languages and found the next Apple/Microsoft/Google/Facebook. There are schools who do exactly that, teach the current Web/Mobile technologies and students are ready to face the world. But academia has a completely another purpose and usually that's to prepare students to become academics.
  • 2
    I agree with this except for when professors are teaching outdated languages. Yes, I understand that we're learning programming concepts no matter what, but if I'm going to learn programming concepts, I'd rather learn them in a language that will actually by utilized by the industry that I intend to go into.
  • 0
    No tl;dr ? Disappointing
  • 0
    I don't know if students actually rant about that
    The issue with colleges, at least here in India, is that they spend an entire semester teaching till just functions and then next semester the same fucking shit but in a different language. An entire semester! It's a huge waste of time and no we can't do anything about that.
    Regarding learning in our free time it's mostly only possible during vacations, I don't remember when was the last time I spent my vacation with my family just so that I can be employable, since I only get max 30 days or so to prepare or learn anything.
    I as of now hold 2 certifications in security but to do that I had to leave learning different frameworks and languages and stuff. It's just because of that we end up not being able to learn so many things which is quite frustrating.
  • 0
    I can actually offer a flip side to this.

    Earlier comment about c# and vb 6 happened to me.

    The difference was that I’d already been coding for years by the time I hit college (pre-uni here in the uk).

    The teachers very graciously allowed me to use C# for my assignments (as I found vb6 too limiting).

    Did great in all my assignments, and the teachers appreciated seeing something different.

    It was actually a lot of fun.

    I’d agree that with a blank canvas student then it’s less important, but programming languages can really shape your approach to programming and how you think about certain concepts. It *is* important, but often in different ways.
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