Ask HN: Is Learning GO worth It if you know Node.js?

[techsin101]

Go shines for web development and Api related stuff. However, I feel ROI isn't that great if you know nodejs/express. I'm looking to learn something that will pay off dividends for a long time.

So instead of learning another similar language I would rather learn something new like Rust.

Why did you learn Go if you already knew a language that could do API stuff?

[ibraheemdev]

Go is super easy to learn especially if you already know a different language. I recently wrote "Twenty minutes to learn Go" [0] - anyone who knows a programming language can easily become productive in Go in less than an hour.

> I'm looking to learn something that will pay off dividends for a long time.

Go is in widespread use in server side web development. I love Rust, and I use it in web-related contexts as well, but it is not yet clear if Rust will ever be used generally as a server-side language. It will most likely never reach the status of Node or Go due to it's learning curve.

Learning Rust will be a great experience, and I suggest you go for it. But in the interest of getting hired for web development, it probably should not be your first option. Stick with Node.js or Go and learn something fun on the side.

0: https://ibraheem.ca/posts/go-in-twenty

[techsin101 → ibraheemdev]

thanks, it seems ill end up learning both but i should start with go

[MichaelPrimo]

I guess it depends. If you don't need concurrency and other stuff Golang is able to do when you are making an asynchronous app then is not necessary, but learning it won't hurt.