[cplat]

If your knowledge of Python comes from JavaScript, I would not blame Python for it. It's the failure of the person to not "read the instructions" and assume instead. Maybe conduct interviews in languages that you're familiar with?

[grujicd]

If you were programming long enough, you easily had contact with dozens of languages. How do you pick up a new language? You can't really treat it as your first one. Especially if you need it "for yesterday". You won't read about "if" or "for". No, you scan for what's different from what you already know. If you're lucky you'll find "python for javascript programmers", but that probably won't go into non-core details like this. In practice, you learn basics first and start coding. Then you find a piece of code somewhere that you don't understand. That's a learning opportunity! However, it's easy if it's a function since it's easily googlable. Operators are harder to search for, for instance in new versions of C# you have operators like "?." (just an example). Since googling is hard you go to some "operators documentation" and try to find it there. And hope that it covers the new version. For cases like this story it's even harder because it describes a concept (chaining) and you maybe don't even know which name is used for that.

At least ChatGPT recognized and explained it correctly, so it makes picking up new features easier than it used to be. I'm making a mental note to ask LLMs whenever I encounter unknown constructs.

[skydhash]

If it’s a language I don’t know, I’d still read a book or check the doc for a tour of the syntax. I can scan one in a couple of hours and get an overview I can refer to later for a more specific question. Even if I needed it for yesterday.