Driss-A-Blog

The point of asking questions in casual conversation is to draw out information about the person, so you get to know them better. You then follow up on interesting points, or, if you find common ground, you offer something about yourself to build a connection between you. The “what language” question fails here miserably.

Surprisingly, I've been asked it by non-technical people. I have to bite my tongue to keep from asking them if they're serious. I would compare it to asking a mechanic the brand of his wrenches, except for the fact that perhaps a non-mechanic would have the opportunity to use a wrench in the course of his normal life. But what language I use couldn't even possibly qualify as useful advice to anyone non technical.

Can you follow up on it? I'll answer, “Oh, I use C++, Java, Objective-C, machine language, whatever it takes.” And you say... what? There's no follow-up here. “Which one do you like?” Fair, but useless. “Whichever one's the best for the job. Or dictated by the usual politics.” We get even more deeply technical (or political, even worse) which drives the conversation in the wrong direction. Going technical when you're not in the field is a bad idea.

Can you make a connection based on my answer? C'mon.

So why ask this if you're non-technical? Sure, to the other non-technical people you may sound like you know what you're talking about, but I know you're clueless. Go for human-interest. Ask me how I relate to my team, or what I dream of achieving. I hope I'm not giving you too much of a shock with my revelation that most developers are human, and would relate to you if you showed interest in them as a person and worked that angle.

But what saddens me the most is when technical people as me this question. Yes, they can follow up, and perhaps they can relate. But the fact that they're asking betrays their lack of depth.

If they're asking what language it takes to accomplish a certain task (“Oh! So what do you program the Mac in, anyway?”) then I can take it to be curiosity. But otherwise, even the phrasing of the question eats at me. What language? Why do you assume that I program in one language? If you know only one language, you are an amateur.

Every language you learn teaches you to think in a different way. Assembly taught me to think of the processor in terms of the cycle. C taught me speed and sharp edges. C++ taught me complexity and power. Java taught me how to love the object and fear the standard library. NewtonScript taught me to love bytecode and dynamism. And so on.

But more fundamentally, the language isn't really the issue. Yes, it's just a tool, and some are more appropriate than others for any given project, but in the end, language almost never really matters. What matters are the thoughts, the algorithms, and the design. Keywords are keywords. What's the structure? What problem are you trying to solve, and how?

And therefore, asking about the language shows a lack of understanding about the real issues. And as a fellow developer, you should know that already. Please let me respect you.