Comment by columbo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by columbo | Hacker News Reader

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Oh sure, there are reasons to use an easier/faster-to-develop language, I believe every developer should know a 'hard-and-fast' language and a 'slow-and-easy' language... and know when to use them.

98% of the websites out there could run on python and I doubt we'd see a big performance difference.

However, I really don't think there exists a 10x difference developing in Spring. Hell, I don't think there is a 10x difference in using Struts vs Rails.

Spring development is considered slow as it brings images of enterprise shops taking several years to go through the bureaucratic red tape necessary to incorporate a new feature.

I've worked with plenty of small companies using Spring and their development/release cycle is maybe 1/2 or 1/4 the speed of comparable 'easier-to-build' technologies, but it definitely isn't 1/10th the speed to develop.

I chose that number because of this anecdote:

I worked at a start-up a few years ago. I worked on a PHP-powered website that spoke to a Java-powered (Spring/Hibernate) service layer. The PHP team consisted of one: me. The Java team consisted of over 10 engineers. I outpaced them easily and consistently.

In other projects with similar divisions, I've had similar experiences, though not always so dramatic.

I used to be a hired gun that would be called in occasionally to, like you, code circles around bigger teams when deadlines were tight.

Last few years however I decided to stick around with one of my clients for a while and I realized that quite a few of the employees I considered sub-par before were actually pretty decent programmers doing their best to do quality work in a dysfunctional environment.

I've since then learned to really appreciate this quote, which my gut tells applies to your situation as well:

"Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by bad management."

You're exactly right. I hope my comment didn't come across as critical to the engineers I worked with. Some of them are the best engineers I have ever worked with, and I have great respect for them.

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