
“Learn at least one new language every year” is bad advice - bhalp1
https://dev.to/bosepchuk/learn-at-least-one-new-language-every-year-is-bad-advice--207p
======
tboyd47
> Over the years, people have stripped that context away and turned it into
> something like this: "Learn at least one new language every year or you're
> not a good programmer."

It's generally bad advice to set up unreasonable expectations for yourself.
For some people, learning one or two languages (on an extremely shallow level)
in a year could expand their mind and make them more well-rounded. For others,
it might just be an invitation to a pointless busywork competition with your
peers. You learned two languages last year!? Well, I'm going to learn _three_.

In programming, we have no certifications and no licensing. If you can write a
program that does something useful to somebody, then congratulations, you are
a Licensed and Certified Developer, I guess. There's no definition between the
in-group of "true" programmers and all the other hacks who just got lucky. A
weird side effect of this is that these divisions emerge naturally through
developers' individual journeys of professional growth. "You don't become a
_true_ programmer until you do X." And so on.

