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What is the “smart programmer” language in 2020?

13 points by rdeselby ↗ HN
Thinking about Python Paradox [1], which language has interesting design and seems to have a bright future because it is drawing a community of "smart pepole" now?

My background is data analysis and Julia seems very enticing (I also think there is a lot of good design in R's tidyverse).

While python in 2004 was great, when I was thinking about it now, the adjective that I come up with is "tedious". It is my main lang at the moment though.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html

19 comments

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giantg2
The smart language is MBA. Go into management because that's where the money is and you'll never need another language.

If you really want a language, then the two you mentioned are good. We just started using a ton of python at my company in the past 2 years for data science and AWS.

samfisher83
There are a lot of MBAs being pumped out now days. I am not sure of the value of the degree.
giantg2
True, but you can stand out if you have some time in as an engineer and then move up. It really helps to understand the technical side of things, and many regular MBAs don't.
natalyarostova
Are you... aware of SDE salaries?
giantg2
Yes, are you aware of what their managers make?
lol636363
Not a whole lot more. I had one job at a small company where I made more than my direct manager.
giantg2
Then I guess you should go tell Glassdoor that your anecdote is better than their statistics.
benibela
Average here is € 59 814 / year
giantg2
Average US engineer makes about $95k. Software managers average $130k.
thomspoon
Source? Those seem rather low.
giantg2
Glassdoor. It's a national average, so your specific area may be higher.
tcbasche
If all you care about is money, then why bother? Break both legs riding a bike and sue someone for a million dollars.

Honestly we all earn so much unnecessary money in this field that we might as well at least try to do something useful with it. The world needs less managers anyway

giantg2
I never said that I only care about money. As a manager, you could make a positive impact on your subordinate's lives. It can also matter to people how you make your money (fuck lawsuits).

That's a brazen statement. How can you assume that everyone makes tons of money?

Also, where did I say that we shouldn't do something useful with our money? If you make more as a manager, that would open up an opportunity to make more of an impact.

In my experience, less managers just means pushing management duties down to people who have neither the title, nor the compensation, nor the training.

dunefox
Honestly, from what I've seen so far you've pretty much named it: Julia.
cbkeller
One of the main reasons I started looking into Julia was because someone smarter than me in the DOE CSGF program was using it (specifically Miles Lubin, who was working on JuMP[1] at the time). I don't know if that's a good way to choose programming languages, but one way or another I'm definitely a Julia convert now. Come for the community, stay for the multiple dispatch!

[1] https://github.com/JuliaOpt/JuMP.jl

[dead] Jugurtha
>Hence what, for lack of a better name, I'll call the Python paradox: if a company chooses to write its software in a comparatively esoteric language, they'll be able to hire better programmers, because they'll attract only those who cared enough to learn it.

Better programmers deliver useful programs.

a-saleh
I.d.k. I would say choose your language based on the community and the problem you are trying to solve.

I.e. my next team project that won't be in Python would probably be in Rust, as other colleagues are pretty excited about it.

My personal stuff might be something a tiny bit more obscure, i.e. Haskell, Ocaml, or even some APL dialect.