

Ask HN: When you meet a fellow programmer "in the wild", - probably

...is it cliche to ask them what language they program in? Is there a better topic of conversation?
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benologist
What kind of work they do is far more interesting than what language they do
it in.

~~~
probably
Of course, but after that part...

~~~
benologist
Well after that part either you find something about their work interesting or
vice versa, or you look for some other common interest, or you go your
separate ways...

------
relaunched
Having met a few programmers in the wild, topics of interest come up and
languages themselves aren't interesting. However, differences in languages, or
where languages fail, sometimes come up.

Personally, leading with a language is superficial at best, and at worst, a
crude filter employed to determine whether or not a person fits in with your
objective or clique.

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whichdan
This happens -all- the time at reddit meetups. We're clearly a group of mostly
programmers and techy people, yet everyone describes their profession as
"programming." I have to pry out what they actually do. That said, benologist
has the right idea with asking what they do rather than how they do it.

------
JustinChaschowy
...What a Geeky thing to suggest, talk about sports or women, brah.

~~~
probably
Whups, that did not even occur to me. But shouldn't you make an attempt to
talk about your _common_ interests? ;)

