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by CorvusCrypto 3534 days ago
I can't for the life of me think of a reason this kind of blog post would make me want to join a company. If anything it shows the opposite quality of a CTO as mentioned in the article. Use what is suited to your needs, don't worry about appealing to the tech crowd. After all, even if PHP is shit, it's not your problem. Let us handle implementation of what you need, we will (or our lead dev will) help you understand pros and cons to certain technologies. Besides, for every article written about why PHP sucks, there's at least 5 PHP devs looking for work :P
2 comments

So... are you asking me for examples of CTOs of successful companies who have written tech articles promoting one type of tech because another is bad?

I can do that, if you really couldn't do it yourself. It's not uncommon at all.

Like I said, I don't do it because I don't think it would help. But in some cases, it can definitely help. How many startups use their dedication to a specific (incrementally more modern) tech stack as a perk while hiring? Quite a few, and these often have subtly disparaging remarks baked in. And I've absolutely had success hiring and growing my team by explaining why we use Clojure over stock java whenever possible.

Nah not at all. But I am saying that it's not gonna sway my decision when you bash a technology amidst many other companies that have successfully used the same technology. It just shows a lack of vision imo. My comment wasn't targeted at yours specifically, but was a follow up on the topic.

and imo explanation of why you use one technology over another is not equal to just a "PHP sucks!" blog post.

The point of a CTO talking up one technology or talking down another has absolutely nothing to do with swaying your ideas about that technology at all.

A CTO isn't a technology evangelist for or against that technology. The role is to get the most out of whatever technology the company is using. If talking down weaknesses in one technology and talking up strengths in another helps find hires looking for the technology the company is using or shows the strength of the company in being able to address those weaknesses or take advantage of those strengths, then that's good for the company.

CCP Games is probably certain someone else can do without Stackless Python. The folks at Facebook don't care if you use PHP or Hack at some other company. Booking.com is perfectly happy for you to use Python, Java, Forth, Haskell, or whatever at your company but they sponsor Perl conferences. Those companies will continue selling their in-house stack and its advantages. They'll continue pointing out where one solution grew creaky and they improved it with something else (like Facebook and Hack). They do that because it's good for them.