On LinkedIn, a recipe for raking home the likes and cheering-ons is to post about that the tools do not matter at all, only the people matter.
“Yay!”
“Thanks for sharing!”
“So insightful!”
I call bullshit.
Well, maybe it is true for some, but not for all, and certainly not for me! To me people matter a ton, and so do tools. The amount of matter is on the same order of magnitude for both. This is because I work as a programmer for a reason. I think there is nothing more fun, thrilling, and rewarding to do than to code. It’s where that creative part of me gets its nourishment. As a programmer I create things ex nihilo. My ideas come into existence from under my fingertips, and it is the most wonderful feeling. Also in my spare time you’ll find me coding.
If programming would be “just another job” I would join the fans and likers to those LinkedIn posts. Then the only thing that matters is that I work with kind and humorous professionals who have joined forces to create great things. In that situation, tools matter very little to me.
But coding isn’t just another job for me. So the choice of tools start to matter tons! Almost at the level of working with good people in a good environment. I leave a place where the people and the environment don’t fit me. As I will leave if the tools used (indeed, the tools I am supposed to use) are not the tools I am interested in using.
Of course, this is only if I enjoy the luxury. I will even take a Java job if I don’t find an assignment where the tools are better suited for getting things done with efficiency and joy. Then I go into “it’s just a job” mode. But I will be out the door the second I am offered a job where the programming language and development paradigms suit me. If the environment is toxic, the same. If I can’t find another job, I’ll grit my teeth and bide my time.
All this said. It is true that the working environment, especially the people, are more important than the tools. If I can’t find a job where both aspects are fulfilled, and I have to choose between a Java job at a good place and a Clojure job at a bad place, then it will be Java for me, until I find that good place where they use Clojure and want me to work there. No doubts!
Ten years ago I would be hitting that like button and cheering on those LinkedIn messages I am ranting about today.
Then things changed. I happened upon Clojure. Or Clojure happened upon me. Probably both.
I think that it can look like programming languages do not matter to you if you haven’t yet found your language. I was once there, but that’s not where I am now. Without knowing I was searching, I found it!
Clojure! ❤️
Peter Strömberg 
Peter Strömberg is an autodidact programming nerd living in Stockholm, Sweden. He has been all over the (coder) place for a long time. After some 20 years in the profession he made an attempt to leave it for another passion of his: Product. That attempt ended when Peter was introduced to Clojure and he felt how it gave him back all the joy of programming, and then some.
You can contract Peter for remote Clojure/ClojureScript gigs up to 80% of an FTE. The other 20% Agical pays him to spend doing open source work. Most often this is about maintaining Calva, a popular Visual Studio Code Clojure IDE extension which Peter created 2018.
- E-mail: peter.stromberg@agical.se
- LinkedIn: Peter (PEZ) Strömberg
- Twitter: @pappapez