[carapace]

If you only know one language you're a technician, not a programmer. If you only know one paradigm of languages you're a technician, not a programmer.

If that sounds harsh to you or you have some sort of negative emotional reaction to that then you're way too personally invested and should probably go have some tea or a little lie down.

There's nothing wrong with being a technician. It's a useful and valuable role.

The confusion between programmers and technicians, though, leads to a lot of wasted time and effort. If you hire a technician when you really need a programmer you're gonna have a bad time. If you hire a programmer when all you really need is a technician they will eventually leave (if you're lucky the technicians you hire to replace them will be able to understand what they wrote.)

Because of all the confusion, it's possible to hire young and inexperienced programmers and pay them and treat them like technicians, but it can be tricky to differentiate them. (The big FAANG outfits just hire everybody and only promote the programmers, but you probably can't afford to do that.)