27 Apr
2016
27 Apr
'16
10:53 a.m.
On Wed, 4/27/16, Sean Conner <spc at conman.org> wrote:
Alas, no, but that's really the point I was getting at with the comment
about knowing multiple languages. It wasn't about the languages
themselves or what value the variety itself brings. I pulled the half
dozen number out of the air just because if I look back over any
6 to 12 month period of my career, I've used a good half dozen
during that period. What's important to me isn't the effect on the
candidate's programming; it's the independence, self-motivation,
and curiosity that learning many languages represents. I also like
to see evidence that the candidate recognizes that no skilled
artisan's toolbox contains only a single tool. My biggest complaint
about new grads is the view that all the world's a nail, because
the only tool in their toolbox is a hammer.
BLS
The bracketed
note in the second paragraph of content on
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/personality.html is exactly the sort of
thing I'm talking about here; ESR taught himself TeX by the simple
expedient of reading the TeXBook.
? You mean not everybody does this?