Programming Languages DON'T MATTER | Let's Rant!

hey how's it going everyone in this video i just kind of want to rant a little bit about a topic that i've been thinking about for a while now but i've never made a video about it and i just kind of want to kind of put this thought out there and it's this idea that i really don't think that the programming language matters there's a ton of focus especially with beginners and you have to remember like i teach people how to code like that's what i do so i'm always thinking like what is it like to be a beginner coming into this industry and there's always a lot of anxiety and a lot of uncertainty with beginners around which programming language should i learn it's like the most common question i get it's like you know well should i learn python my friend said i should learn c plus plus but then my other friends using java at his job like which one should i use right which programming language should i learn which one should i like dedicate all of my time and my energy to and i don't know i'm here to tell you that i think there's some good news which is that it really doesn't matter and obviously this isn't like a blanket statement it does kind of matter a little bit but especially as a beginner or even as someone who's already in the industry i will make the argument right now that i really don't think it matters i have taught people how to i've taught millions of people how to code all over the world i've developed curriculums to be able to do that and i've done it in multiple languages so i have courses on every basically all the main programming languages c c plus pause python java ruby php dart javascript all these different languages and if it's funny like if you go and watch some of my videos and you watch me teaching all of these different languages i'm literally doing the same thing in every video so when i first started creating videos like three years ago right when i got out of college basically my goal was to do that was to make videos in all of these popular languages just so people could have a nice entry point into the industry and it's been largely successful but what i did when i created these videos is i basically created a master curriculum so i said okay what do you need to to learn to be able to program what are the core concepts of computer programming and i just wrote all of them out so you have things like you know printing or you need to be able to get input from info from the computer you need variables different data types conditionals like if statements you need data structures like arrays and objects you need object oriented programming loops there's like these this core set of maybe i don't know 15 concepts probably even less and those are the same fundamentals the same core concepts that are in every single programming language so if you look at all my programming tutorials i'm literally walking through the same exact curriculum in each one and it's because there's like really basically no difference there's basically no difference between writing a program in python versus writing a program in ruby there's basically no difference between writing a program in c sharp versus writing a program in java now there are some big differences between languages like you have dynamically typed languages you have interpreted languages you have statically typed compiled languages there's different flavors of languages but at the same time you're using the same stuff i mean if you write a if you write code in ruby you're using loops and you're using conditionals and you're using boolean expressions if you write code in c it's the same stuff you're using you're literally using the same like programming constructs just in a different language and i think i don't know i always think about like the beginner's perspective it's just so intimidating like if you're coming into this industry like i said i mean everyone's going to tell you that you need to learn a different language everyone's going to tell you that you need to focus on a different thing but it really doesn't matter so i don't know i mean it's look there's always going to be new programming languages there's always going to be these new technologies and these new ways of doing things coming out but one of the things that you have to understand if you're a beginner is that there's really not much difference okay any i mean i always let me say this like i always hear people kind of brag they're like dude i'm fluent in like five programming languages or they'll be like dude i know seven programming languages like that's so cool and like it's really not like i don't know like there's nothing really to brag about there it's kind of the same stuff like yeah you know how to put code together with loops and if statements and maybe some object orientation or some functional paradigms in there whatever like you just you know how to put the code together it's the difference between the languages is just syntax the real difference between these languages comes from the community and that's an argument that i definitely want to make in this video let's take a look at something like python python has a really good reputation it's one of my most popular videos online right now is like this python tutorial that i made and the reason that everyone says python's so good and people should use python is because there's a lot of people using python right python's always you know touted as like the the best language for data science it's it has nothing to do with like the way that python runs right python's an interpreted language it's actually pretty slow it's probably not the best language when you're trying to parse through you know terabytes of of data but there's a lot of there's a lot of code that's been written to help you do that there's a lot of libraries that are in python that allow you to do that pretty easily and so it is actually a pretty good language for doing that because there's a lot of developers who are doing it but yeah just to get back to the main point it's like the programming language doesn't really matter i don't know so if you're a beginner and you're just kind of like learning to code i wouldn't worry about this language or that don't get stressed out about it i mean there's certain languages that are easier to learn for sure i mean python and ruby come to mind right they're just like super easy to write like i always say in ruby like because i used to teach ruby at this like boot camp and me and my teaching assistant would always joke where like with ruby you can just kind of guess what the function names are and it kind of works like you don't even need to look at the syntax you just be like dot what you know dot sort what you can just kind of guess what it is because it's so beginner friendly whereas if you start with something like c you're just gonna rip your hair out because you know you're dealing with like allocating memory and stuff like that but yeah i don't think that the the language that you start with is really that important in fact like if somebody came up to me and they were like oh yeah i can code in like five different languages i don't know it just it doesn't impress me that much because to me that like it just doesn't matter like this is this is a point that i i guess i want to make here it's like code is code it doesn't really matter what it's written in like nobody sees that like someone who's using your application using your website using your mobile app they don't care if it's written in swift or if it's written in flutter or react native or ionic or whatever the new way to put you know stuff on a mobile device is like nobody cares about that all they care about is does the app work is it buggy like does it have the features that i wanted to have like we get so caught up in you know using this particular programming language or that particular programming language and when in reality it's just about building software so if you're somebody who's sitting there and you're like man you know i don't uh i don't i only know one programming language or if you're like huh what's the three i've heard people ask people ask me this question too they'll be like what are the three programming languages i should learn it's like don't just pick one it doesn't matter like literally i mean like i said there's some that are easier i mean i guess i'll get like python ruby um i mean javascript actually i would say javascript is not beginner friendly at all come on i might make another video just ranting about javascript but um you know yeah just just pick one pick a tutorial like if it's one of my tutorials if it's someone else's tutorial pick a language that you can actually learn and that you have resources to learn and then it doesn't matter because you're going to learn all the core concepts it's the same 15 core concepts that are in all of these programming languages so as long as you can just if you understand like what an if statement is what conditional logic is what object-oriented programming is it's the same stuff in all these languages like i'm i've filmed so many videos where i'm just walking through the same concepts in different languages and you really start to realize that it's all the same stuff yeah there's okay there's functional programming languages and then there's object oriented or whatever languages like even that's not that big of a deal come on let's just let's level with ourselves i think sometimes as programmers we like think a little too highly of ourselves we're like well i'm using that technology and that language or i'm using that framework i don't write code like that it's like dude at the end of the day like is your code being are people using your code like does it work is it buggy like are you able to maintain it and test it that's all that matters so i guess the main thesis of this video is like who cares okay who cares what language that you're using or that you're learning it's all the same stuff and especially as beginners i think beginners tend to get intimidated by that and it certainly doesn't help when you have like fanboys or fangirls of these languages like oh you're dude you're learning ruby like are you kidding me you should be learning python it's way better it's like it doesn't matter so don't worry about that um at least that's my advice to you so okay that's my rant on programming languages and why they don't really matter um if if you want to learn some programming languages i have videos on here that will teach you but otherwise like i wouldn't really i wouldn't worry about it too much okay just focus on learning the core concepts and then you'll be able to program in any language that's what i'm saying like i understand these core concepts i can jump around languages all day if i need to that's and i'm not even that good of a developer like there's tons of developers who can do that so just focus on those core concepts and forget the language just have fun like just have fun coding it's so fun and it's so oh it's just like coding is like an art it's like this way to that you can express yourself if you go about it the right way so yeah don't get too caught up in the language just just enjoy the journey that's that's what coding is all about so if you like this video leave a like if you have any thoughts on this if you disagree with me or if you agree with me leave a comment but otherwise thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: Mike Dane

Views: 30,870

Rating: 4.9431415 out of 5

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Id: gyZtxZVPfPI

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 08 2021