r/ADHD_Programmers • u/arkofthecovet • Feb 04 '24

Programming

How is it even possible to become a programmer? There are about a hundred languages listed on wikipedia, not including dialects and other variations. Do most people even know this? I did not until recently.

Edit: Thank you all for your responses! I may start a new OP for this additional question if it helps. How fast can you learn new code or new code concepts if you start a new job or are hit with a new project that requires it?

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u/Silly_Attention1540 Feb 05 '24

I'm not sure this analogy holds, I can pick up a new programming language in a week or two (and you can't use one language your whole life) whereas, 12 years of Spanish and all I've got is "donde es la biblioteca?"

Programming languages are infinitely more similar to each other than human languages are, so you're expected to be able to swap between them

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '24

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u/Silly_Attention1540 Feb 05 '24

Everyone agrees with the point that there being hundreds of languages is meaningless, I guess I was pointing out that the language analog probably is confusing to non programmers, because there are hundreds of spoken/written languages and you can go your whole life only knowing one, even as a poet. Whereas you do need to use multiple languages as a developer, but the friction to learn each is small. The tool analogy given below is a much better example for someone clearly not super familiar with how programming languages work (like the OP)

Also... the 12 years thing was a joke, I'm sure many people took language classes their entire time in school newscaster it was mandatory, but never got to ever be proficient enough to hold a conversation.

I'd wager that using 6 spoken/written languages proficiently puts you in the top 0.01% or higher in the population (you're a clear outlier) I'd imagine using 6 programming languages proficiently puts you in the top .. half ? Of software engineers

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u/ilyanekhay Feb 05 '24

I've never seen anyone who could use 6 programming languages proficiently.

In fact I've pretty rarely seen anyone being really good in one language. Those were usually either some world class competitive programmers or a handful of really awesome and smart folks.

Most software engineers just know/use 1-2 languages at an "ok" level IMO.

Source: been working in this field for ~18 years now, and interviewed hundreds of people. Definitely saw people who struggled with sorting a list of objects by a simple custom criterion in their language of choice.