| What's the best 'technology' vs what's the best 'language', I wonder if people are getting the two confused, or what the question you're asking truly is. With a PhD in Electrical Engineering, I'd think you could go far in the growing hardware market. I think the key in selecting a technology to learn 'right now', you need to consider when you'll want to use this technology for. The way I (kinda) do it, is to not look at languages specifically, but what I want to do with them, and how I can leverage what I already know. For example, recently I've wanted to start playing with hardware (RaspberryPi and Arduino). But I didn't just jump in and start learning C, I looked at what I already know (javascript/ruby/etc.) and am looking at how I can leverage that in this new technology. I've also got an interest in algorithms and data, I've done some work with parse-trees in Ruby and have tried umpteen times to get to using the Stanford Parser with Java, but it normally ends with me curled in a ball sobbing, so now I'm doing the Coursera class in Scala (how often do you get to learn a language from the creator of that language). I learned RoR, not because it was popular that day, but because I was working on a project I knew I would be passing on to another team to manage long-term, they had some RoR experience, and the structure of an RoR project meant I knew would lead them to easily understand how to manage it without much knowledge transfer. So, to me, the best technology to learn is the one where you match your interests, and your existing knowledge to become an expert in what should be a growing field.
One thing to consider there (of course) is where that technology will land you in 1-5 years. |