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by insanitybit 991 days ago
I explicitly said "as a developer" because it's not a personal judgment. You can be a good person and also have a terrible take as a software engineer.

> We should not categorically denounce people who prefer it as lesser developers

I don't think you've justified this point. I'm comfortable with my position on this.

3 comments

What you say is true, but it’s also true that the person you are replying specifically made their remarks about productivity - you’re both talking about what is best at work.

It seems reasonable to argue that statements that you won’t even discuss X any more and would rather judge the person as less competent professionally are unproductive. Not saying I agree, btw. But it does seem like a pretty basic point. One of you is talking about preserving your sanity and the other about output. It’s not necessarily a disagreement even.

> any more and would rather judge the person as less competent professionally

That is absolutely NOT what the other poster said. They said they _MAY_ judge them that way.

Fair point, you're right!

I still think it's reasonable to argue that's not a "productive" approach, but like I said, that's not my own opinion, I just think it's a reasonable argument.

Again, I don't mean "personal" in the sense that you are making a statement about someone's worth as a person. It's "personal" because you extrapolate information about an individual person's technical skills from a single opinion than you have any real factual justification to do so. People will always find ways to defy your preconceived notions.
to add, I agree with you mostly.

I don't necessarily think it makes someone a "lesser developer" if they prefer untyped languages, but I DO think they've either had to maintain anything long term or it stayed relatively small.

Whether that makes them lesser or not isn't really for me to say, but I can say I'm definitely on board with the idea that types increase productivity the longer a system is maintained. Unless used poorly, types don't automatically mean you use them well, but they make it a hell of a lot easier to do the right thing.